THE  LIBRA! 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


IN  MEMORY  OF 
MRS.  VIRGINIA  B.  SPORER 


• 

- 


-v:  , 


/  v^*^ 

•>  ,^ 

V 


- 


Ancient  Classics  for  English  Readers 

EDITED   BY   THE 

REV.  W.  LUCAS  COLLINS,  M.A. 


THE 

GKEEK  ANTHOLOGY 


A    SERIES    OF 


ANCIENT  CLASSICS 


ENGLISH    READERS. 

EDITED  BY 

IR,  IE  AT.    'W.    LTJO^LS     O  O  ID  31 1  IDsT  S. 
20  Vols.    Small  izmo.    Fine  cloth.    $1.00  each. 


NOW   COMPLETE,    EMBRACING 


1.  HOMER'S   ILIAD. 

2.  HOMER'S   ODYSSEY. 

3.  HERODOTUS. 

4.  CJESAR. 

5.  VIRGIL. 

6.  HORACE. 

7.  7ESCHYLUS. 

8.  XENOPIION. 

9.  CICERO. 

10.   SOPHOCLES. 


11.  PLINY. 

12.  EURIPIDES. 

13.  JUVENAL. 

14.  ARISTOPHANES. 

15.  HESIOD  &  THEOGNIS. 

16.  PLAUTUS  &  TERENCE. 

17.  TACITUS. 

18.  LUCIAN. 

19.  PLATO. 

20.  GREEK    ANTHOLOGY. 


The  aim  of  this  delightful  series  of  books  is  to  explain,  suf- 
ficiently for  general  readers,  who  these  great  writers  were,  and 
what  they  wrote ;  to  give,  wherever  possible,  some  connected 
outline  of  the  story  which  they  tell,  or  the  facts  which  they  re- 
cord, checked  by  the  results  of  modern  investigations ;  to  present 
some  of  their  most  striking  passages  in  approved  English  transla- 
tions, and  to  illustrate  them  generally  from  modern  writers ;  to 
serve,  in  short,  as  a  popular  retrospect  of  the  chief  literature  of 
Greece  and  Rome. 

"  Each  successive  issue  only  adds  to  our  appreciation  of  the  learning  and 
skill  with  which  this  admirable  enterprise  of  bringing  the  best  classics  within 
easy  reach  of  English  readers  is  conducted." — New  York  Independent. 

"  One  of  the  most  ingenious  and  successful  literary  enterprises  of  the  day." 
— Every  Satiirday. 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

715  and  717  Market  St.,  Philadelphia. 


THE 

GREEK  ANTHOLOGY 


BY 


LORD     NEAVES 

ONE   OF  TUB  SENATORS  OF  THE   COLLEGE  OF  JUSTIC* 
IN    SCOTLAND 


PHILADELPHIA 
J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 

1875. 


CONTENTS. 


MM 

CHAP.       I.    INTRODUCTION 1 

ii         II.    DEDICATORY, 17 

n        III.    SEPULCHRAL, 57 

ii         IV.    AMATORY ..80 

r            V.    DIDACTIC, 97 

ii  VI.    LITE11AUY  AND   AUTISTIC,         ....  118 

n  VII.    WITTY  AND  SATIRICAL,             ....  179 

ii  VIII.    NARRATIVE   AND  MISCELLANEOUS,            ,           .  197 


2041849 


THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 


CHAPTEE    L 

INTRODUCTION; 

THE  Collection,  or  rather  the  Collections,  of  small 
poems  known  as  the  Greek  "Anthology,"  have  long 
been  an  object  of  great  interest  to  scholars.  They 
have  been  much  studied  and  repeatedly  edited.  The 
individual  poems,  or  selections  from  them,  have  been 
often  translated  and  often  imitated.  They  employed 
the  best  care  of  the  great  printer,  Henry  Stephens. 
They  were  favourite  subjects  of  study  with  Erasmus, 
and  his  friend  Sir  Thomas  More.  The  greater  part 
of  them  were  excellently  translated  into  Latin  verse 
by  Hugo  Grotius,  a  man  sometimes  overrated  and 
sometimes  underrated,  but  undoubtedly  eminent  in 
various  departments  of  learning — as  a  scholar,  a  jurist, 
and  a  theologian.  The  poet  Gray,  a  critic  of  nice 
and  fastidious  taste,  made  them  the  object  of  particu- 
lar attention,  and  enriched  an  interleaved  copy  of 
Stephens's  Anthology  with  copious  notes,  parallel  pas- 
A.  c.  vol.  xx.  A 


2  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

sages,  and  conjectural  emendations,  besides  transfusing 
several  of  the  epigrams  into  Latin  verse.  They  beguiled 
some  of  the  weary  hours  which  Johnson  felt  heavy  on 
his  hands  in  his  last  illness,  and  they  helped  to  cheer 
the  melancholy  and  morbid  life  which  was  the  lot  of 
the  amiable  Cowper. 

It  is  true  that,  amidst  the  general  chorus  of  appro- 
bation which  they  have  excited,  a  few  anserine  dis- 
cords have  occasionally  been  heard.  Chesterfield,  in 
his  famous  Letters,  thus  peremptorily  denounces  them 
to  his  son:  "I  hope  you  will  keep  company  with 
Horace  and  Cicero  among  the  Eomans,  and  Homer 
and  Xenophon  among  the  Greeks,  and  that  you  have 
got  out  of  the  worst  company  in  the  world — the  Greek 
epigrams.  Martial  has  wit,  and  is  worth  looking  into 
sometimes ;  but  I  recommend  the  Greek  epigrams  to 
your  supreme  contempt."  But  whatever  we  may  think 
of  his  lordship  in  respect  of  knowledge  of  life  and 
worldly  wisdom,  we  are  not  disposed  to  bow  to  his 
authority  in  literature  any  more  than  in  morals. 

The  supposed  insipidity  of  Greek  epigrams  had 
been  a  well-known  subject  of  jest  in  Paris  in  the  cen- 
tury preceding  Chesterfield's  time.  Racan,  the  French 
poet,  was  shown  by  a  lady  some  epigrams  of  her  own 
composition.  He  pronounced  them  bad,  because  they 
wanted  point.  She  replied  that  that  was  of  no  con- 
sequence, as  they  were  epigrams  a  la  Grecque.  They 
met  at  dinner  soon  afterwards,  where  the  soup  served 
up  was  not  very  palatable,  and  the  lady  observed  to 
llacan  that  it  was  abominable.  He  replied:  "^Made- 
moiselle, it  is  soupe  a  la  Grecque,"  which  expression 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

having  got  abroad  became  a  favourite  mode  of 
designating  an  indifferent  soup.*  A  French  poet, 
or  indeed  a  French  man  of  fashion  generally,  was 
likely  enough  to  miss  in  the  Greek  compositions  the 
piquancy  for  which  his  own  literature  is  so  remark- 
able, and  Chesterfield's  school  of  taste  was  eminently 
French.  But  Menage  himself,  who  tells  the  story 
given  above,  but  who  was  a  good  scholar,  and  a 
considerable  wit,  appreciated  highly  the  Greek  epi- 
grams, and  composed  a  good  many  Greek  imitations 
of  them. 

Men  of  the  greatest  learning  and  best  taste  have,  since 
Chesterfield's  time  and  down  to  our  own  day,  given  a 
very  diU'ereiit  verdict  from  his  opinion,  and,  we  may 
say,  have  done  so  unanimously.  We  rind,  no  doubt, 
in  the  Anthology,  that  admixture  of  good,  bad,  and 
indifferent  which  Martial  pronounces  to  be  unavoid- 
able in  all  similar  collections;  but  to  prefer  Martial 
to  his  Greek  prototypes,  or  r.ither  predecessors,  as 
Chesterfield  does,  would  now  be  universally  held  to 
be  blind  and  tasteless  criticism.  We  feel  assured  that, 
even  under  the  disadvantages  arising  from  their  wearing 
an  English  dress,  the  specimens  given  in  this  volume 
will  justify  to  its  readers  the  high  estimate  of  the 
Anthology  which  has  so  completely  gained  the  ascend- 
ant among  men  of  true  discernment. 

Until  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
only  "  Greek  Anthology  "  considered  to  be  extant  in 
anything  like  a  complete  state  was  the  collection  made 

*  Meuagiaua,  165. 


4  TIIE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

by  Maximus  Planudes,  a  monk  of  Constantinople,  who 
flourished  about  the  middle  or  in  the  earlier  half  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  Planudes  was  considered  to 
have  compiled  this  collection  from  an  Anthology,  or, 
as  it  was  called,  a  "  Cycle,"  of  epigrams,  put  together 
by  Agathias — surnamed,  from  his  study  of  law,  Scho- 
lasticus — a  well-known  though  heavy  historian,  who 
was  a  native  of  Myrine,  and  lived  in  the  time  of  Jus- 
tinian, in  the  sixth  century  after  Christ.  Planudes's 
collection  was  distributed  into  seven  books,  under  dif- 
erent  heads,  according  to  the  subjects  treated  of. 

It  was  about  the  year  1606  that  the  great  scholar 
Siilmasius,  then  a  youth  of  eighteen,  discovered  in  the 
library  of  the  Palatinate  at  Heidelberg  another  MS.  of 
a  Greek  Anthology,  compiledbyConstantinus  Cephalas, 
of  whom  not  even  the  name  had  been  previously  heard. 
Cephalas  appears  to  have  lived  about  the  beginning  of 
the  tenth  century,  and  thus,  in  point  of  chronology, 
occupies  an  intermediate  position  between  Agathias 
and  Planudes.  The  latter  collector,  as  seems  now 
to  be  probable,  employed  himself  chiefly  in  abridging 
and  rearranging  the  work  of  Cephalas,  which  is  gene- 
rally the  more  copious  of  the  two,  though  not  on  all 
subjects.  Planudes  has  been  somewhat  harshly  as- 
sailed as  not  merely  destitute  of  taste,  but  as  having 
expurgated  lines  and  even  stanzas  in  the  original 
poems,  and  either  omitted  them  altogether  or  replaced 
them  with  phraseology  of  his  own.  We  are  not  will- 
ing, however,  to  cancel  or  much  diminish  the  debt 
which  we  undoubtedly  owe  him  ;  and  there  are  not  a 
few  epigrams  suppressed  by  him  which  have  since  come 


INTRODUCTION:  5 

to  light,  and  which  had  bet t cr  never  have  been  published 
or  never  written.  His  Anthology,  until  Salmusius's  dis- 
covery, was  the  only  considerable  repertory  of  this  kind 
of  literature,  and  was  a  source  of  inexhaustible  interest, 
amusement,  and  instruction  to  many  generations  of 
scholars.  Planudes,  though  his  taste  may  have  been 
defective,  was  a  man  of  learning  as  well  as  of  worth. 
Jle  translated  into  Greek  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  and 
other  Latin  works;  and  it  seems  now  to  be  proved  that 
he  was  not  the  author  of  a  foolish  life  of  /Esop  that 
was  long  ascribed  to  him. 

It  is  remarkable  that  while  the  Palatine  Anthology 
had  been  discovered  by  Salmasius  so  early  as  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  discovery  made 
gem-rally  known,  and  although  it  was  the  declared  in- 
tention of  Salmasius  to  publish  it  immediately,  a  num- 
ber of  circumstances  interfered  for  a  long  time  to  prevent 
that  step  being  taken ;  and  it  was  only  about  the  end 
of  the  last  or  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  at 
an  interval  of  nearly  two  hundred  years,  that  it  was 
given  to  the  world  by  Brunck  and  by  Jacobs.  The 
MS.  had  in  the  mean  time  gone  through  a  variety  of 
adventures,  having  been  removed  to  the  Vatican  in 
1G23  witli  the  rest  of  the  Palatine  library,  there- 
after transferred  to  Paris  in  1797,  and  in  1815  finally 
restored  to  Heidelberg,  where  we  suppose  it  now  lies, 
if  none  of  the  recent  German  arrangements  have  led  to 
a  change. 

Partial  transcripts  of  it  had  in  the  mean  time  been 
made,  but  the  final  publication  of  the  Palatine  manu- 
script, and  the  attention  and  careful  study  which  it  called 


(5  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

forth  from  German  scholars,  who  generally  do  thoroughly 
whatever  they  undertake,  threw  a  great  deal  of  addi- 
tional light  on  this  branch  of  literature.  These  studies, 
pursued  with  much  ardour  by  various  scholars,  have  in 
a  special  manner  brought  into  conspicuous  notice  the 
name  of  Meleager,  the  first  and  most  considerable  of  the 
jl'iin-r-yatherers,  for  such  is  the  English  equivalent  for 
the  word  "anthologist."  He  was  a  Syrian,  and  flourished 
in  the  early  part  of  the  century  preceding  the  com- 
mencement of  our  era.  He  collected  the  fragments  of 
Greek  poetryand  genius  which  before  his  time  were  either 
intrusted  to  the  memories  of  men,  engraven  on  marbles 
or  other  solid  structures,  or  dispersed  in  miscellaneous 
works  as  fugitive  pieces.  These  he  named  his  "  Gar- 
land," and  prefixed  to  it,  as  a  preface  or  procemium,  a 
set  of  verses  extending  to  nearly  GO  lines,  in  which  he 
characterises  each  or  the  principal  part  of  the  writers 
included  in  his  collection  by  a  flower  or  plant  emble- 
matical of  his  or  her  peculiar  genius.  But  Meleager 
was  not  merely  a  collector,  he  was  ulso  a  composer,  of 
epigrams,  and  his  compositions  may  take  a  high  place 
in  comparison  with  the  average  or  all  but  the  best  of 
those  inserted  in  his  "  Garland."  His  character  seems 
to  have  been  a  remarkable  one,  not  free  fro.'ii  great 
faults,  ardent  in  his  passions,  and  acute  in  his  sus- 
ceptibilities, but  with  a  high  idea  of  the  dignity  of  the 
poet's  art,  and  a  lively  and  just  appreciation  of  the 
Px'autiful.  Another  collector  after  Meleager  was  Phil- 
ippic of  Thessalonica,  Avho  lived  in  the  time  of  Tra- 
jan, and  who  also  contributed  some  original  epigrams 
and  prefixed  a  proem  to  his  collection.  Finally,  there 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

came  Agathias,  already  mentioned,  the  last  of  the 
ancient  anthologists,  whose  collection  was  entitled  a 
"  Cycle  "  or  Circle  of  poetical  compositions,  and  who 
himself,  like  his  predecessors,  contributed  some  original 
epigrams,  not  indeed  equal  to  those  of  Meleager,  but 
yet  not  destitute  of  tuste  and  elegance.  Contribu- 
tions to  his  collection  were  also  supplied  by  his  con- 
temporary and  friend,  Paul  the  Silentiary,  who  at  the 
court  of  Justinian  held  an  office  in  some  degree  corre- 
sponding to  that  of  Gentleman  usher. 

Generally  speaking,  the  space  of  time  over  which 
the  writers  of  the  Greek  epigrams  successively 
HouiisheJ  may  be  said  to  extend  to  upwards  of  a 
thousand  years — from  Simonides,  if  we  call  him  the 
earliest,  down  to  Agathias  as  the  latest  of  them — 
a  period,  undoubtedly,  of  very  long  duration  for  a 
language  and  literature  to  retain  such  a  wonderful 
vitality,  and,  amidst  some  fallings  off,  a  certain  simi- 
larity of  style  and  character.  It  might  be  doubted  if 
some  of  the  latest  of  these  writers  deserved  the  name 
of  Classical  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term.  But 
Agathias,  the  last  in  the  list,  has  so  well  caught  the 
ancient  spirit,  that  it  would  be  harsh  to  exclude  him. 
After  his  era  the  degeneracy  of  the  literature  became 
unmistakable. 

None  of  these  more  ancient  collections  descended 
entire  to  modern  times,  and  we  know  them  mainly  in 
the  compilations  formed  from  them  successively  by 
Cephalasandby  Planudes.  The  nameof  "Anthology"  L< 
still  employed  on  the  same  principle  on  which  Meleager 
originally  regarded  his  collections  as  wreaths  or  gar 


8  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

lands,  the  poems  composing  it  being  assimilated  to 
flowers  of  varied  kinds  and  hues.  The  individual 
poems  have  been  called  Epigrams,  a  term  which 
originally  and  literally  denoted  simply  an  Inscription, 
though  the  word  was  in  process  of  time  transferred  to 
a  different  class  of  compositions — and  perhaps  it  might 
have  been  convenient  to  have  two  words,  epigram  and 
ej>i(/raj>h,  to  note  the  distinction. 

The  tendencies  of  the  Greek  mind  in  originally 
building  up  this  species  of  literature  are  well  ex- 
plained by  Jacobs,  the  ablest  and  the  most  diligent 
of  the  editors  of  the  Anthologies.  He  speaks  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  as  the  most  religious  of  men ;  using 
the  epithet,  as  we  conceive,  in  a  favourable  sense,  to 
designate  that  feeling  of  dependence  and  gratitude 
towards  divine  power  which,  however  alloyed  by  a 
mixture  of  superstition  and  a  leaning  to  sensuous 
forms  of  worship,  had  in  it  much  of  the  essence  of  a 
true  piety.  In  this  spirit  he  tells  us  that,  referring 
to  the  gods  all  events,  whether  prosperous  or  adverse, 
they  were  accustomed,  when  their  wars  had  been  suc- 
cessfully concluded  and  their  enemies  subdued,  to  set 
apart  a  portion  of  their  booty  or  of  its  profits  to  the 
honour  of  those  deities  to  whose  protection  they 
thought  that  they  owed  the  victory,  as  well  as  to  dedi- 
cate to  them  in  their  temples  and  shrines  the  arms  of 
which  their  enemies  were  stripped.  This,  he  con- 
siders, was  the  oldest  form  of  offerings  and  inscrip- 
tions, and  others  of  an  analogous  kind  were  gradually 
added.  Prizes  won  in  public  games,  or  some  equiva- 
lent for  them,  were  dedicated  by  the  victors  to  the 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

gods  who  patronised  them.  The  old  soldier  conse- 
crated the  weapons  and  armour  he  was  no  longer  fit  or 
likely  to  use.  Mechanics  and  labourers  did  so  in  like 
manner  with  the  implements  of  their  industry,  when 
these  were  worn  out,  or  when  the  owners  changed 
their  own  employments.  Even  playthings,  when  laid 
aside,  were  thus  dedicated,  a  common  feeling  of 
affectionate  remembrance  prompting  the  owners  to 
place  them  under  the  protection  of  a  temple,  rather 
than  leave  them  exposed  to  the  rude  accidents  of 
chance  or  neglect.  Moral  sentences  came  to  he  put  up 
as  inscriptions  on  statues  or  memorial  columns ;  and 
we  read  of  a  desire  shown  by  the  Pisistratidie  to  dis- 
seminate in  this  way  prudential  maxims  or  impressive 
truths  by  inscribing  them  in  verse  upon  the  Herman, 
or  busts  of  Mercury,  which  formed  their  milestones  or 
landmarks.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  inscriptions  on 
tombs  were  a  natural  and  obvious  mode  of  preserving 
the  memory  of  the  dead  and  recording  the  alfection  of 
the  living. 

The  workings  of  the  Greek  character,  as  tending  in 
these  many  ways  to  embody  and  perpetuate  the  national 
feeling  of  rude  and  sometimes,  as  it  almost  seems,  of 
infantine  piety,  are  nowhere  better  analysed  and  de- 
scribed than  in  those  well-known  passages  in  Words- 
worth's "  Excursion  "  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  quote, 
where  he  deals  with  the  genesis  of  natural  religion  in 
different  countries  and  under  different  circumstances. 
These  feelings,  as  Wordsworth  shows  in  a  continua- 
tion of  the  same  passage,  led  them  to  look  at  the  more 
beautiful  or  striking  scenes  of  nature  and  natural 


10  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

objects  as  animated  by  some  spiritual  essence  that 
could  be  reverenced  and  addressed,  and  hence  their 
affectionate  consecration  of  their  rivers,  hills,  and 
groves  to  the  deities  or  semi-deities  under  whose  care 
they  seemed  to  be  placed. 

" '  Take,  running  river,  take  these  locks  of  mine,' 
Thus  would  the  Votary  say — 'this  severed  hair, 
My  vow  fulfilling,  do  I  here  present, 
Thankful  for  my  beloved  child's  return.' " 

All  of  these  impulses  are  exhibited  in  the  poems 
of  the  Anthology,  which  thus  acquire  an  additional 
interest  from  the  light  they  throw  upon  the  manners, 
customs,  and  beliefs  of  this  remarkable  people.  The 
wide  range  of  topics  embraced  in  the  anthologies  has 
been  well  depicted  by  De  Bosch  in  some  Latin  lines 
to  the  memory  of  Grotius,  printed  in  his  edition  of 
the  Anthology,  in  which  Grotius's  translations  first 
appeared,  and  which  we  venture .  thus  to  render  in 
some  of  its  most  striking  parts  : — 

Whoe'er  delights  in  themes  from  history's  page, 

These  varied  studies  will  his  thirst  assuage  ; 

Here  sacred  bards  their  liberal  aid  bestow 

The  fates  of  gods  and  goddesses  to  show  ; 

Wisdom  may  sometimes  wear  a  louk  austere, 

But  smiles  and  jests  are  oft  her  helpmates  here  ; 

Venus  and  every  Grace  for  victory  vie, 

And  fast  the  Idalian  darts  of  Cupid  fly. 

By  disc  or  javelin  now  the  prize  is  won, 

On  horseback  or  on  foot  the  race  is  run. 

The  graceful  Muse  has  here  concisely  sung 

The  charms  that  woman  sends  from  eye  or  tongue  ; 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

What  men  have  done  she  gives  to  understand, 
Whose  zeal  has  saved  or  raised  their  native  land. 


Cities,  that  in  the  dust  long  buried  lie, 

Bear  in  their  ancient  seats  their  heads  on  high. 

Traces  of  shrines  and  temples  seem  to  stand 

Heaped  with  large  gifts  from  many  a  pious  hand. 

The  sml  laments  of  friends  now  strike  our  ears  ; 

Our  eyes  now  see  the  child's,  the  parent's  tears. 

We  hear  the  widow's  wail,  when  doomed  to  mourn 

A  loved  one  lost,  and  clasp  his  lifeless  urn. 

Lessons  of  wisdom  open  to  our  view 

In  all  life's  varied  scenes  of  gay  or  gloomy  hue. 

The  inscriptions  that  existed  in  Greece  were  innumer- 
able. Even  those  that  still  remain,  either  in  their 
original  sites  or  removed  to  munificent  libraries  or 
museums,  are  very  numerous,  and  we  have  the  terms 
of  many  more  preserved  in  ancient  books.  But  it  is 
not  every  epigram  that  can  claim  a  place  in  an  Antho- 
logy. It  must  for  that  purpose  be  an  antJios  or  flower, 
possessing  an  attraction  from  some  beauty  or  elegance, 
from  some  ingenuity  or  elevation  of  sentiment.  Many 
inscriptions  of  great  historical  interest  are  thus  ex- 
cluded. It  is  interesting  to  read  in  Plutarch  of  the 
pillar  that  Theseus  is  said  to  have  erected  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Corinth  to  mork  the  boundary  between 
Attica  and  the  Peloponnesus.  On  one  side  of  it  were 
the  words,  "This  is  not  Peloponnesus,  but  Ionia;" 
on  the  other,  "This  is  Peloponnesus,  not  Ionia;" — 
of  which  ancient  inscription  an  imitation  was  put  up 
on  Hadrian's  arch  at  Athens,  dividing  the  older  town 


12  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

from  the  part  that  the  Eoman  emperor  had  reno- 
vated : — 

"  This  Athens  is  the  primitive  town  of  Theseus. 
This  is  the  town  of  Adrian,  not  of  Theseus." 

Still  more  interesting  is  it  to  read  the  very  words  of 
that  inscription  to  which  Milton  so  touchingly  refers 
in  his  sonnet,  beginning,  "  Captain  or  colonel,  or  knight 
in  arms " — when  he  entreats  that  his  "  defenceless 
doors  "  may  be  preserved  from  harm  amidst  the  civil 
disturbances : — 

"  Lift  not  thy  spear  against  the  Muses'  bower : 
The  great  Emathian  Conqueror  bid  spare 
The  house  of  Pindarus,  when  temple  and  tower 
Went  to  the  ground." 

The  actual  inscription  by  which  Alexander  the  Great 
preserved  Pindar's  house,  when  Thebes  was  given  over 
to  be  sacked  by  his  soldiers,  has  been  preserved  by 
some  ancient  antiquaries,  and  runs  thus  : — 

"Of  Pindarus  the  poet  do  not  burn  the  house." 

Again,  on  the  base  of  the  wonderful  statue  of  Olympian 
Jove,  the  name  of  the  sculptor  was  thus  inscribed  in 
an  hexameter  line,  at  what  time  does  not  appear : — 

"Phidias,  Charmides'   son,  the  Athenian  citizen,  made 
ME." 

A  startling  inscription,  and  involving  a  strange  mixture 
of  ideas  !  The  statue  is  made  to  speak  as  a  person,  and 
thus  almost  becomes  the  god  himself,  and  yet  this  god 
describes  the  artist  as  having  made  him.  How  diffi- 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

cult  to  reconcile  this  fact  with  what  is  told  of  Stilpo 
the  philosopher,  that  he  was  banished  by  the  Areopagus 
for  saying  that  the  Miru-rva  in  the  Citadel  of  Athens 
was  no  divinity,  but  the  work  of  Phidias  the  sculptor  ! 
But  interesting  as  these  inscriptions  are,  they  do  not 
belong  to  an  anthology.  Even  those  of  them  that  have 
a  metrical  form  are  too  much  mere  matter-of-fact  to 
have  a  place  in  a  Garland. 

It  should  here  be  added  that  the  parentage  of  indi- 
vidual epigrams  is  often  very  uncertain.  We  know 
generally  what  poets  had  places  in  Meleager's  and 
rhilippus's  collections,  from  the  enumeration  of  their 
names  in  the  proems.  But  we  are  still  in  doubt  as  to 
tin'  individual  poems  which  they  wrote,  and  often  tin-re 
are  a  variety  of  persons  of  the  same  name  who  wrote 
poems  not  easily  distinguishable.  In  this  perplexity 
we  are  often  driven  to  resort  to  internal  evidem-e, 
which  is  not  always  a  safe  guide,  though  on  the  whole 
it  may  keep  us  from  any  great  blunder.  In  genual, 
the  simpler  and  more  natural  the  composition  is,  if  it 
has  genius  at  all,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  be  an  ancient 
and  original  inscription. 

The  Greek  Anthology,  therefore,  in  its  largest  sense 
— swelled  as  it  has  been  by  contributions  from  various 
sources  —  may  now  be  considered  as  consisting,  not 
merely  of  the  collections  of  Cephalas  and  Planudes,  but 
also  of  a  large  number  of  other  short  poems  deserving  the 
name,  of  epigrams  or  epigraphs,  found  scattered  about 
among  the  old  Greek  historians,  biographers,  and  mis- 
cellaneous writers,  and  which  it  is  likely  that  Meleager, 
Philippus,  or  Agathias,  if  \ve  had  them  entire,  would 


14  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

be  found  to  have  inserted  in  their  collections,  or  might 
reasonably  have  done  so.  But  the  longer  and  more  elab- 
orate compositions,  not  of  an  inscriptional  character, 
ought  perhaps  to  be  excluded  from  this  class,  though 
it  is  not  always  easy  to  draw  the  line,  and  most  of  the 
modern  editors  of  the  Greek  Anthology  have  occasion- 
ally overstepped  the  limit. 

We  have  already  indicated  that  the  primitive  Greek 
epigram  differs  much  from  the  modern  idea  attached 
to  the  word.  From  the  time  of  Martial,  indeed,  the 
epigram  came  to  be  characterised  generally  by  that 
peculiar  point  or  sting,  which  we  -now  look  for  in  a 
French  or  English  epigram  ;  and  the  want  of  this  in  the 
old  Greek  compositions  doubtless  led  some  minds  to 
think  them  tame  and  tasteless.  The  true  or  the  best 
form  of  the  early  Greek  epigram  does  not  aim  at  wit 
or  seek  to  produce  surprise.  Its  purpose  is  to  set 
forth  in  the  shortest,  simplest,  and  plainest  language, 
but  yet  with  perfect  purity  and  even  elegance  of  dic- 
tion, some  fact  or  feeling  of  such  interest  as  would 
prompt  the  real  or  supposed  speaker  to  record  it  in  the 
form  of  an  epigram ;  though  it  is  true  that,  particularly 
in  the  later  period  of  epigrammatic  writing,  these  com- 
positions, even  among  the  Greeks,  assumed  a  greater 
variety  of  aspect,  and  were  employed  as  the  vehicle  of 
satire  or  ridicule,  as  a  means  of  producing  hilarity  and 
mirth.  A  good  many  of  the  epigrammatists  flourished 
in  or  after  the  age  of  Martial,  and  may  have  followed  or 
co-operated  with  him  to  produce  this  change  of  style. 

It  seems  of  great  importance  at  the  present  time  to 
recall  attention  to  these  early  monuments  of  genius 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

and  taste.  They  are  highly  characteristic  of  the 
Greek  mind,  which  in  those  compositions  that  did  not 
deal  with  fervid  or  majestic  expression,  looked  to  the 
combination  of  perfect  simplicity  with  perfect  beauty 
as  their  true  ideal ;  and  this,  in  great  things  or  in  little, 
in  sculpture  or  in  poetry,  in  the  statue  that  enchants 
the  world  or  the  epigraph  that  in  a  few  lines  has 
power  to  touch  the  heart  or  please  the  fancy.  Much 
of  these  excellences,  particularly  of  diction,  must  be 
lost  in  translation,  as  the  structure  of  the  classical 
languages,  especially  the  Greek,  afforded  facilities  for 
condensation  and  elegance  unattainable  in  English. 
Even  the  attempt,  however,  to  imitate  this  character, 
may  help  to  purify  the  taste,  in  an  age  when  the  poet 
is  not  always  free  from  obscurity,  when  the  art  of 
concealing  art  seems  not  often  practised,  when  con- 
densation is  not  thought  of,  and  simplicity  is  con- 
sidered to  be  insipidity. 

The  first  serious  attempt  to  exhibit  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  Greek  epigram  in  English  translation  was 
in  the  papers  which  appeared  in  '  Blackwood's  ^I,i-a- 
zine1  in  the  years  1833  and  1834,  from  the  pen  of 
Professor  "Wilson,  assisted  by  many  friends,  and  par- 
ticularly by  Mr  William  Hay,  who  for  some  years  de- 
voted much  of  his  scholarship  and  powers  of  versifica- 
tion to  this  task.  The  effort  thus  made  was  eminently 
successful,  and  has  tended  very  much  to  throw  into  the 
shade  the  more  vague  and  diffuse  versions  which 
had  proceeded  from  previous  translators,  including 
even  Elton,  and  Bland  and  Merivale,  to  whom,  how- 
ever, we  owe  a  df-o  debt  of  gratitude  for  doing  so 


16  TIIE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

much  to  revive,  in  the  present  century,  a  taste  for  this 
species  of  poetry. 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  in  what  order  composi- 
tions of  this  kind  should  be  treated.  On  the  whole, 
it  seems  best  not  to  deal  with  them  chronologically,  or 
even  according  to  the  authors  to  whom  they  are  attri- 
buted, which  is  often  a  matter  of  difficulty,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  authorship  being  doubtful.  It  seems  a 
preferable  course  to  divide  them  into  classes,  and  in  this 
way  to  keep  together  epigrams  of  the  same  character, 
which  will  facilitate  comparison.  The  classes  into 
which  we  shall  divide  them  are  these  :  1,  Dedicatory  ; 
2,  Sepulchral ;  3,  Amatory  ;  4,  Didactic ;  5,  Literary 
and  Artistic  ;  6,  Witty  and  Satirical ;  7,  .Narrative 
and  Miscellaneous. 


CHAPTER    II. 

PEDICATOBT. 

WE  proceed  to  give  select  specimens  of  epigrams, 
beginning  with  the  class  that  may  be  called  Dedicatory 
or  Votive.  These  all  involve  the  common  idea  that 
something  is  consecrated  or  offered  up  to  some  divine 
power  ;  and  it  is  thought  that  under  this  division  may 
l»e,  and  ought  properly  to  be  introduced,  among  other 
varieties,  the  monumental  records  of  victories  and 
remarkable  public  events,  where  the  monument  is 
truly  considered  as  made  sacred  by  the  greatness  of 
the  subject,  and  by  the  intention  thereby  to  show 
gratitude  to  the  gods  for  benefits  received. 

Ranging  as  these  epigrams  do  over  so  great  a  por- 
tion of  time,  there  is  one  feature  in  which  they  may 
materially  differ  from  each  other.  Some  of  them  have 
been  actual  inscriptions,  while  others  are  mere  literary 
exercises  or  compositions  of  such  a  kind  as  might  be 
appropriately  inscribed  to  celebrate  any  memorable 
achievement  or  occurrence.  These  diversities  in  the 
epigrams  will  necessarily  tell  upon  their  internal 
character,  for  in  an  actual  inscription  the  poet  may 
dispense  with  any  detail  as  to  those  things  that  are 
patent  to  the  eye.  The  reader  of  such  an  epigram  or 

A.  c.  voL  xx.  B 


18  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

epigraph  on  the  spot,  does  not  need  to  be  told  where 
it  is  erected,  or  on  what  material  it  is  inscribed  ;  he 
has  merely  to  learn  the  subject,  the  occasion,  and  the 
author  or  orderer  of  the  inscription.  But  an  epigram 
that  is  a  mere  literary  production,  while  it  does  all 
this,  must  also  do  more,  and  tell  the  reader  something 
as  to  the  place  and  position  in  which  the  imaginary 
inscription  is  to  be  supposed  to  have  been  put  up. 

Of  these  two  kinds  of  epigram  it  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  first  is  the  more  ancient,  and  will  also  in  gen- 
eral be  found  to  be  the  shorter,  the  simpler,  and  the 
more  direct  of  the  two.  Some  critics  think  that  the 
fictitious,  or  imaginary  inscription,  was  not  known  or 
practised  before  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  but 
be  that  as  it  may,  the  real  inscription,  of  which  many 
specimens  have  been  preserved,  is  certainly  more  in- 
teresting and  valuable,  as  it  also  is,  generally  speaking, 
more  vigorous  and  lifelike,  than  the  other  kind. 

Of  the  composers  of  ancient  epigrams  that  were 
actual  epigraphs,  the  most  remarkable  is  Simonides  of 
Ceos,  particularly  if  we  look  to  the  number  as  well  as 
to  the  merit  of  his  compositions.  His  birth  is  placed, 
by  Clinton,  in  the  year  556  B.C.,  and  his  death  in 
467,  in  the  90th  year  of  his  age.  He  is  the  same  to 
whom  Wordsworth  refers  in  those  beautiful  lines : — 

"  0  ye,  who  patiently  explore 
The  wreck  of  Herculanean  lore. 

What  rapture  could  ye  seize 
Some  Theban  fragment,  or  unroll 
One  precious  tender-hearted  scroll 

Of  pure  Simonides !" 


DEDICATORY.  19 

Some  of  the  pieces  bearing  the  name  of  this  author 
may  be  the  productions  of  other  and  inferior  artists ; 
for  three  of  the  name,  at  least,  attained  distinction 
as  poets,  and  the  family  had  a  professional  and 
hereditary  connec+'^n  with  twef-ry  and  musical  re- 
presentation. Iii  ih«  gieat  oiruoijides  the  fire  of 
patriotism,  or  at  least  the  power  of  expressing  it, 
burned  with  so  bright  a  glow,  that  it  is  difficult  to 
mistake  his  compositions  on  such  subjects.  But 
they  are  also  distinguished  by  much  simplicity  and 
compression,  as  well  as  by  great  sobriety  and  purity  of 
thought.  "  When  young,"  we  are  told  in  Dr  Smith's 
Biography,  "  he  formed  a  part  of  the  brilliant  literary 
circle  which  Hipparchus  collected  at  his  court.  In 
advanced  life  he  enjoyed  the  personal  friendship  of 
Themistocles  and  Pausanias,  and  celebrated  their  ex- 
ploits: and  in  his  extreme  old  age  he  found  an  hon- 
oured retreat  at  the  court  of  Syracuse."  The  resi- 
dence of  Simonides  at  Syracuse  is  particularly  memor- 
able for  two  things.  It  was  he  who,  as  Cicero  tells 
us  in  his  '  Nature  of  the  Gods,'  was  asked  by  Hiero 
who  or  what  God  was,  when  he  requested  a  day's 
time  to  think  of  his  answer.  On  subsequent  days 
he  always  doubled  the  period  required  for  deliber- 
ation ;  and  when  Hiero  inquired  the  reason,  he  replied 
that  the  longer  he  considered  the  subject,  the  more 
obscure  it  appeared.  The  other  circumstance  to 
which  we  refer  is,  that  Xenophon  in  his  '  Hiero  '  intro- 
duces him  as  the  person  to  whom  the  Sicilian  lyrant 
unbosoms  himself  as  to  the  miseries  and  (lungers  of 
that  "  bad  eminence."  On  turning  to  the  volume  on 


20  THK  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Xenophon  in  this  series,  our  readers  will  be  able  to 
judge  of  the  estimation  in  which  Simonides  must  have 
been  held  for  sagacity  and  wisdom.  He  seems  to 
have  been  the  first  inventor  of  what  is  called  Mne- 
monics, or  the  science  of  Artificial  Memory. 

Two  events  are  mentioned  as  having  occurred 
to  Simonides,  which  have  rather  a  fabulous  air.  It 
is  said  that  having  given  burial  to  a  dead  body 
which  lay  exposed  on  the  sea- shore — an  act  which 
was  held  among  the  Greeks  to  be  an  indispensable 
duty  of  humanity — the  dead  man  appeared  to  him  in  a 
dream,  and  warned  him  not  to  go  on  board  of  a  certain 
vessel  in  which  he  had  intended  to  sail,  and  that  by 
following  this  advice  his  life  was  saved,  as  the  vessel 
was  lost  on  her  voyage. 

On  this  subject  an  epigram  is  preserved,  which  runs 
thus,  having  reference  to  some  supposed  representation 
of  his  dream  : — 

"  The  Saviour  of  Simonides,  the  Ceian,  here  you  see, 
Who,  dead,  repaid  the  living  man — an  act  of  piety." 

His  life  was  again  saved  on  another  occasion  in  this 
way.  He  had  written  a  eulogistic  poem  upon  the 
Thessalian  prince,  Scopas,  for  which  he  was  to  receive 
a  certain  remuneration.  He  had  introduced  into  the 
poem,  also,  some  laudatory  verses  on  the  Dioscuri 
(Castor  tind  Pollux),  and  Scopas,  on  settling  the  trans- 
action, refused  to  pay  him  more  than  a  half  of  the 
stipulated  sum,  telling  him  to  apply  to  the  Dioscuri 
for  the  other  half.  Soon  afterwards,  when  Simonides 
was  present  in  the  house  of  Scopas,  he  was  told  that 


DEDICATORY.  21 

two  young  men  wished  to  speak  with  him,  and  going 
to  the  door  he  saw  no  one  ;  but  while  gazing  around 
him  in  astonishment,  the  house  which  lie  had  just  left 
fell,  and  killed  Scopas  and  the  other  guests,  while 
Simonides  was  saved. 

As  already  mentioned,  Simonides  was  a  professional 
poet,  and,  as  Bcntley  irreverently  says,  one  of  "  a 
string,"  including  Pindar,  that  got  their  livelihood 
by  the  Muses.  It  is  certain  that  he  would  be  largely 
ivmunmitcd  from  the  public  treasury  for  his  his- 
torical epigrams,  just  as  the  Italian  poet  Sannazaro 
got  from  the  Venetian  Senate  600  ducats  for  his 
epigram  of  six  lines  on  the  beauty  of  Venice.  But  it 
may  be  inferred,  from  their  brevity  and  condensation, 
that  the  payment  of  Simonides  would  be  measured 
rather  by  the  merits  than  by  the  length  of  his  com- 
positions. 

Many  of  his  short  poems  were  written  in  celebration 
of  victories  gained  at  the  public  games  of  Greece,  and 
for  these,  no  doubt,  he  would  also  be  liberally  paid. 
Aristotle  tells  a  story  of  him,  that  upon  being  asked 
to  celebrate  fora  trilling  remuneration  a  victory  gained 
in  a  mule-race,  he  declined,  upon  the  ground  that  it 
was  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  Muse  to  praise  the  off- 
spring of  an  ass ;  but  that,  upon  the  terms  being  in- 
creased, he  dignified  the  subjects  of  his  song  by  desig- 
nating the  mules  as  the  daughters  of  "storm-footed 
steeds  ; "  choosing  thus  to  elevate  them  by  a  reference 
to  their  generous  mothers,  rather  than  to  degrade  them 
by  speaking  of  their  ignoble  sires. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  the  epigrams  made  by  Simo- 


22  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

nides  upon  a  public  event  had  reference  to  the  erection 
of  an  image  of  the  god  Pan  in  connection  with  the 
battle  of  Marathon. 

The  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  this  event  are 
these :  The  Athenians,  when  they  marched  towards 
Marathon  to  meet  the  enemy,  sent  off  a  messenger  of 
noted  speed  to  require  instant  succour  from  Sparta. 
The  Athenian  courier,  as  Thirlwall  tells  the  story, 
travelling  with  breathless  haste,  reached  Sparta  the 
next  day  after  he  had  left  Athens.  The  Spartans  did 
not  refuse  assistance  ;  but  they  did  not  feel  the  urgency 
of  the  juncture,  and  dismissed  the  messenger  with 
promises  of  distant  succour.  On  rejoining  his  felloAV- 
citi/ens,  he  announced  to  them  assurances  of  aid  from 
an  invisible  hand.  As  he  crossed  the  top  of  the 
mountains  that  separate  Argolis  from  Arcadia,  the 
g(»d  Pan,  he  said,  had  called  him  by  his  name,  and 
had  bidden  him  cheer  the  Athenians  with  a  gracious 
reproach  for  having  neglected  the  worship  of  a  deity 
who  had  often  befriended  them  in  time  past,  and 
would  prove  his  goodwill  toward  them  yet  again.  In 
reference  to  these  occurrences,  and  in  allusion  to  the 
panic  which  he  was  supposed  to  have  created  in  the 
1  Vivian  army,  the  statue  of  Pan  seems  to  have  been 
•  KM  led  by  Miltiades,  for  which  the  epigram  by  Simo- 
nides  was  written. 

The  closest  translation  we  can  find  is  here  given, 
being  confined,  as  the  original  is,  to  a  single  couplet :  — 

"  Me,  goat-foot  Tan,  tlie  Amid— the  Modes'  fear, 
The  Athenians'  friend — Miltiu  les  placed  here." 


DEDICATORY.  23 

It  will  be  noticed  that,  with  all  its  brevity,  this  epi- 
gram states  every  circumstance  necessary  to  make  the 
story  intelligible.  The  name  of  the  god  is  given,  and 
his  deformed  aspect  is  mentioned  as  the  means  by 
which  he  was  the  better  able  to  strike  terror  where  he 
wished  to  do  so.  His  country  of  Arcadia  is  named, 
as  enlisting  his  sympathies  in  behalf  of  Greece ;  his 
enmity  to  the  Medes,  and  his  friendship  for  the 
Athenians,  are  celebrated,  as  having  led  to  the  erection 
of  his  statue;  and,  finally,  the  name  of  the  general  is 
recorded  by  whom  the  dedication  was  made. 

A  still  more  celebrated  epigram  by  Simonides  refers 
to  the  battle  of  Thermopylae ;  and  it  is  a  striking  fact 
that  the  same  poet  who,  when  an  elderly  man,  had 
celebrated  the  victory  at  Marathon,  the  first  struggle 
with  the  Persians,  should  be  called  upon  ten  years 
afterwards,  and  should  still  retain  sufficient  poetical 
power,  to  record  the  chief  events  of  the  second  Persian 
invasion.  The  epigram  to  which  we  refer  has  been 
often  translated..  There  are  eighteen  English  versions 
of  it  in  the  article  on  the  Anthology  in  '  Blackwood's 
Magazine,'*  all  of  them  good,  but  we  select  the  ver- 
sion by  Bowles,  which  Christopher  North  there  says  is 
the  best,  "  and  is  perfect."  The  epigram,  it  will  be 
seen,  has  a  special  reference  to  the  Spartans  who  fell 
at  Thermopylae  along  with  their  king,  Leonidas,  whose 
march  to  that  place  was  impelled  probably  by  a  feel- 
ing in  their  government  that  as  Athens  had  gained  the 
victory  at  Marathon  without  assistance  from  the  Pelo- 

*  Vol.  xxxiv.  p.  970. 


24  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

ponnesus,  it  was  now  Sparta's  turn  to  take  the  lead. 
This  is  the  epigram  : — 

"  Go  tell  the  Spartans,  thou  that  passest  by, 
That  here,  obedient  to  their  laws,  we  lie." 

There  happens  to  be  a  various  reading  in  the  second 
line  of  the  Greek,  which  makes  it  doubtful  whether 
the  expression  used  was  "  laws  "  or  "  words."  Cicero, 
who  translated  the  epigram,  seems  to  have  read 
"  laws ; "  but  the  idea  is  the  same,  as  either  term 
was  probably  intended  to  indicate  the  institutions 
of  Sparta. 

Christopher  North  says  as  to  this  noble  epigram  : 
"  Tis  but  two  lines,  and  all  Greece  for  centuries  had 
them  by  heart.  She  forgot  them,  and  Greece  was 
living  Greece  no  more."  The  lines  indeed,  simple  as 
they  are,  contain  the  very  essence  of  those  elements 
which  go  to  make  military  virtue  and  patriotic  fidelity. 
We  do  not  underrate  the  love  of  glory  or  the  sense  of 
honour  in  war,  or  in  public  service  of  any  kind.  We 
may  admire  that  class  of  warriors  whom  the  English 
poet  thus  addresses  : — 

"  On,  ye  brave, 
Who  rush  to  glory,  or  the  grave  ! " 

But  these  are  not  the  highest  feelings  that  should  enter 
into  a  soldier's  career.  Obedience  to  lawful  supreme 
command  is  the  life-blood  of  military  virtue  ;  and  this 
epigram,  as  well  as  the  noble  act  which  it  records, 
illustrates  that  truth.  The  combatants  at  Thermopylae 
are  not  made  to  boast  of  their  courage;  what  they  ask 
the  passer-by  to  announce  at  home  is,  that  they  lie 


DEDICATORY.  25 

there  in  obedience  to  the  laws  or  commands  of  their 
countrymen.  They  were  sent  out  to  stand  in  the 
gap  in  defence  of  Greece  against  the  myriads  of  Asia, 
and  were  bid  to  die  rather  than  retreat.  They  did  so, 
and  that  is  the  simple  report  which  they  wish  to  bo 
conveyed  to  Sparta.  The  effect  of  what  they  did  cor- 
responded with  the  virtue  which  the  deed  displayed, 
by  shaking  the  confidence  of  the  enemy  and  animating 
(Ireek  courage,  not  only  at  the  time,  and  during  that 
crisis,  but  in  Slilwequent  and  similar  dangers  in  after- 
ages.  This  virtue  of  obedience,  it  is  thought,  is  the 
great  distinction  which  gives  pre-eminence  to  one 
military  nation  over  another.  If  wo  find  that  of  two 
nations,  one  has  its  fighting  men  animated  mainly  by 
a  love  of  glory,  and  the  other  mainly  by  a  sense  of 
dutjr,  we  may  easily  predict  on  which  side  the  ulti- 
mate victory  will  be.  In  the  two  greatest  warriors  of 
the  present  century,  the  sense  of  duty  was  the  para- 
mount feeling,  both  in  their  own  minds,  and  as  im- 
pressed by  them  upon  their  followers.  Neither  ot 
them  can  have  Toeen  indifferent  to  fame,  but  duty  is 
what  they  both  preached  and  practised.  On  the  last 
day  of  Nelson's  life,  and,  we  may  add,  the  last  day 
(for  the  time)  of  the  existence  of  a  French  navy,  the 
watchword  for  the  fight  reminded  the  Fleet  of  what 
was  expected  of  the  men, — to  dc  their  duty  ;  that  was 
all,  but  that  was  enough.  Nelson  fell,  while  England 
had  the  reward  of  victory.  It  is  this  simple  rule 
which  prompts  the  exertions  of  the  true  soldier,  de- 
scribed in  Wolfe's  favourite  song  as  one  "whose  busi- 
ness 'tis  to  die."  This  Spartan  obedience,  which 


26  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Simouides  long  ago  celebrated,  is  that  virtue  which 
will  in  all  times  gain  the  ascendant  both  in  war  and 
in  peace. 

The  number  of  Spartans  at  Thermopylae  is  generally 
said  to  have  been  three  hundred,  exclusive  of  the 
Helots  ;  and  the  total  number  of  Greeks  accompanying 
the  Spartans  would  be  a  few  thousands.  The  dis- 
parity between  this  handful  and  the  number  of  the 
Persians  was  sufficiently  great  to  give  rise  to  the  follow- 
ing simple  but  expressive  epigram,  which  is  to  be  found 
recorded  in  Herodotus,  and  which  is  also  ascribed  to 
Simonides : — 

"Four  thousand  men  Peloponnesus  brought, 
Who  'gainst  three  hundred  myriads  nobly  fought." 

The  chief  epigram  that  we  have  given  in  con- 
nection with  Thermopylas  has  reference  to  men  who 
had  fallen  in  the  battle.  But  this  does  not  make  the 
composition  an  ordinary  epitaph.  Its  tone  is  not 
mournful,  but  triumphant.  It  is  not  a  dirge,  but  a 
prean  appropriate  to  the  death  of  heroes,  of  that  little 
"  remnant  of  the  Greeks,"  who,  as  Thirl  wall  describes 
them,  "  armed  only  with  a  few  swords,  stood  a  butt 
for  the  arrows,  the  javelins,  and  the  stones  of  the 
enemy,  which  at  length  overwhelmed  them.  Where 
they  fell  they  were  afterwards  buried;  their  tomb,  as 
Simonides  sings,  was  an  altar,  a  sanctuary  in  which 
Greece  revered  the  memory  of  her  second  founders." 
The  language  of  Simonides,  here  referred  to,  occurs  in 
the  fragment  of  a  hymn  to  the  Spartans  who  fell  at 
Thf.rmopylsje,  and  may  be  thus  translated: — 


DEDICATORY.  27 

"  Of  those  at  lamed  Thermopylae  who  lie, 
Glorious  the  fortune,  bright  the  destiny. 
Their  tomb  an  altar  is;  their  noble  name 
A  fond  remembrance  of  ancestral  fame. 
Their  death,  a  song  of  triumph  ;  neither  rust 
Nor  time,  that  turns  all  mortal  things  to  dust, 
Shall  dim  the  splendour  of  that  holy  shrine, 
Where  Greece  for  ever  sees  her  native  virtues  shine." 

These  epigrams,  on  the  Spartans  generally,  were  by 
public  authority  inscribed  on  pillars  in  their  honour ; 
•while  another  epigram  is  also  mentioned  by  Herodotus 
as  an  individual  tribute  to  Megistias,  a  noble-hearted 
Spiirtan,  whose  sagacity  had  gained  him  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  prophet.  Being  in  the  camp  at  Thermopylae 
with  Leonidas,  and  both  of  them  being  certain  of  the 
impending  fate  of  the  Grecian  force  there  assembled, 
Leonidas  gave  him  his  dismissal,  that  they  might  not 
both  perish.  Megistias,  however,  refused  to  go,  but 
sent  away  his  only  son,  who  was  serving  with  him  in 
the  army.  He  himself  perished  in  the  fight,  and  Hero- 
dotus expret-sly  tells  us  that  Simonides  made  this  epi- 
gram upon  the  soothsayer  in  consequence  of  the  relation 
of  hospitality  existing  between  them  : — 

"  Of  famed  Megistias  hen-  lie-hold  the  tomb, 

Slain  by  the  Medes  who  crossed  Spercheiis'  tide ; 
A  Seer,  who  well  foresaw  his  coming  doom, 
But  would  not  leave  his  Spartan  leader's  side." 

The  name  of  Themistocles  is  so  much  identified 
with  the  final  defeat  of  the  1'eivian  invaders,  that 
those  epigrams  which  relate  to  him  appear  appro- 
priately to  come  r.nder  consideration  at  this  place.  His 


28  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

life  and  fate  afford  a  strange  proof  of  the  incon- 
sistencies of  human  character,  or  of  the  inconstancy  of 
popular  feeling.  Notwithstanding  the  boundless  bene- 
fits which  he  had  conferred  upon  Athens,  his  country- 
men proved  ungrateful ;  though  that  ingratitude  might 
find  some  excuse  in  his  own  imprudence  in  boasting 
of  his  conduct,  and  ostentatiously  asserting  his  merits, 
as  well  as  in  some  delinquencies  by  which  he  was  said 
to  have  derived  benefit  from  his  public  administra- 
tion. He  was  at  last  condemned  to  exile,  and,  strange 
to  say,  found  refuge  at  the  court  of  Persia,  where  a 
pension  was  conferred  upon  him,  and  the  town  of 
Magnesia  assigned  him  as  a  residence.  He  obtained 
these  favours  apparently  by  promising  to  produce  some 
plan  for  aggrandising  the  Persians  at  the  expense  of 
his  own  country.  But  whether  in  this  he  was  playing 
false  with  the  barbarians,  or  really  entertained  un- 
patriotic designs  against  Greece,  seems  to  be  a  matter 
on  which  different  opinions  may  prevail.  At  his 
death  a  splendid  monument  was  raised  to  him  in  the 
public  place  of  Magnesia,  but  a  tomb  was  also  pointed 
out  in  the  Pineus  at  Athens,  to  which  his  bones  were 
supposed  to  have  been  privately  conveyed. 

However  splendid  in  other  respects  his  tomb  at 
Magnesia  might  be,  it  was  not  likely  to  set  forth  his 
achievements  against  the  Persians,  within  whose  terri- 
tory it  lay.  The  following  epigram  was  composed  as 
if  to  supply  this  defect,  and  is  attributed  to  Philij.pus 
the  Anthologist : — 

"  Trace  on  my  toml>  the  mountains  and  the  sea, 
And  let  the  all-seeing  Sun  a  witness  be : 


DEDICATORY.  29 

Trace,  too,  the  streams,  whose  aeep  and  copious  course 
Xerxes  dried  up  with  his  unnumbered  force. 
Add  Salamis  ;  and  make  the  shrine,  that  stands > 
Reared  to  my  memory  by  Magncsian  hands, 
Such  as  Themistocles'  high  fame  demands." 

Another  by  Geminus,  in  the  same  style,  begins  with 
these  words  : — 

"  Give  me  no  grave  but  Greece  ;" 

but  afterwards  proceeds  much  as  that  of  Philippus 
does  :  though  it  would  appear  that  Philippus  here  was 
the  plagiarist. 

A  few  more  epigrams  by  different  authors  will  dis- 
miss the  subject  of  Greek  history  as  far  as  it  seems 
necessary  to  dwell  upon  it  here.  Several  of  these 
bear  the  name  of  Simonides,  but  a  reference  to  the 
chronology  of  the  events  which  they  commemorate 
shows  that  they  must  be  r^efa-red  to  a  younger  relative 
of  the  name. 

The  first  relates  to  the  double  victory  gained  by  the 
Athenian  general  Cimon  over  the  Persians  on  the  same 
day  both  by  sea  and  land,  an  event  which  happened 
in  the  year  following  that  in  which  Simonides  is  said 
to  have  died.  The  translation  we  give  is  by  Meri- 
vale  : — 

'•  Ne'er  since  that  olden  time  when  Asia  stood 
First  torn  from  Europe  by  the  ocean  n*ood, 
Since  horrid  Mars  first  poured  on  either  shore 
The  storm  of  buttle  and  its  wild  uproar, 
II nth  man  by  land  and  sea  such  glory  won, 
As  for  the  mighty  deed  this  day  was  done. 


30  THE  GREEK  AST110LOGY. 

By  land,  the  Modes  in  myriads  press  the  ground  ; 
By  sea,  a  hundred  Tyrian  ships  are  drowned, 
With  all  their  martial  host  ;  while  Asia  stands 
Deep  groaning  by,  and  wrings  her  helpless  hands." 

This  double  victory  is  the  event  to  which  Pope 
satirically  alludes  in  the  "  Dunciad,"  by  comparing  to 
it  a  Lord  Mayor's  procession  by  land  and  water  : — 

"  'Twas  on  the  day  when  .  .  .  rich  and  grave, 
Like  Cimon,  triumphed  both  on  land  and  wave." 

The  next  epigram,  also  translated  by  Merivale, 
relates  to  the  same  day's  events,  and  may  probably  be 
ascribed  in  like  manner  to  the  younger  Simonides. 

ON  THOSE  WHO  FELL  AT  THE  EURYMEDON. 
"  These  by  the  streams  of  famed  Eurymedon, 
Their  envied  youth's  short  brilliant  race  have  run' 
In  swift-winged  ships,  and  on  the  embattled  field, 
Alike  they  forced  the  Median  bows  to  yield, 
Breaking  their  foremost  ranks.     Now  here  they  lie, 
Their  names  inscribed  on  rolls  of  victory." 

A  few  more  epigrams  may  here  be  given  upon 
Marathon  and  Thermopylae,  and  the  Persian  invasion 
generally.  The  first  is  by  the  Simonides,  the  rest  by 
miscellaneous  writers  : — • 

"  Nobly  to  die  !  if  that  be  virtue's  crown, 
Fortune  to  us  her  bounty  well  displayed. 

•  Striving  to  make  Greece  free,  we  gained  renown 
That  shrouds  us  where  we  lie,  and  ne'er  can  fade." 

"  These  to  their  country  brought  an  endless  name, 
When  death's  dark  cloud  around  themselves  they  drew  ; 
Nor  dying,  did  they  die  :  their  virtue's  fame 
From  Hades  brings  them  back  to  live  anew." 


DEDICATORY.  31 

The  next  epigram  th.it  we  come  to  appears  in  two 
forms ;  in  one  as  a  single  couplet,  in  another  as  con- 
sisting of  an  addition  that  extends  it  to  six  lines. 
The  first  couplet  may  be  enough  to  give.  The  peculiar 
phrase  in  the  first  line  corresponds  to  a  Gre«k  pro- 
verbial expression  used  to  denote  any  crisis  or  import- 
ant turning-point  in  human  affairs. 

"  When  on  a  razor's  edge  all  Hellas  stood, 
We,  who  lie  here,  preserved  her  with  our  blood. 

The  epigram  that  follows  has  reference  to  the 
victory  gained  over  the  Persians  at  Plataja,  on  which 
occasion  the  lines  are  said  to  have  been  inscribed  on 
the  altar  of  the  Eleutherian  Jove  (Jove  the  deliverer), 
near  to  which  solemn  sacrifices  in  honour  of  that  deity 
were  for  a  long  time  periodically  offered  up. 

"  Here,  when  the  Greeks,  by  strength  of  heart  and  hand, 
Had  driven  tin-  IVrsiims  from  the  Hellenic  land, 
A  record  of  delivered  Greece  to  prove, 
They  raised  this  shrine  to  the  Deliverer,  Jove." 

This  is  an  inscription  for  a  trophy  in  the  temple  of 
Minerva,  obviously  referable  to  the  Persian  Avar ;  the 
translation  is  from  Eland's  collection  : — 

"  From  wounds  and  death  they  rest — this  bow  and  quiver, 
Beneath  Minerva's  holy  roof  for  ever  : 
Once  did  their  shafts  along  the  battle  speed, 
And  drink  the  life-blood  of  the  charging  Mede." 

This  is  by  an  unknown  author : — 

"  Miltiadee,  the  Persians  all  thy  warlike  prowess  found, 
And  by  thy  virtue,  Marathon  is  consecrated  ground." 


32  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

This  is  by  Parmenio,  in  reference  to  Xerxes'  mar- 
vellous exertions  :— 

"  Him  who  reversed  the  laws  that  Nature  gave, 
Sailed  o'er  the  land,  and  walked  upon  the  wave, 
Mars? with  three  hundred  spears  from  Sparta's  plain, 
Arrested :  blush,  ye  mountains,  and  thou  main  ! " 

This  also  is  ascribed  to  Simonides,  and  is  said  to  be 
on  the  Corinthians  who  fell  at  Salamis  : — 

"  Well-watered  Corinth  was  our  home  before  ; 
We  lie  on  Salamis'  Aiantian  shore. 
The  ships  of  Tyre,  the  Persian,  and  the  Mede 
We  routed,  and  thus  holy  Greece  we  freed." 

What  follows  next  is  a  singular  epigram,  also  by 
Simonides,  referring  to  supplications  offered  up  to 
Venus  by  her  Corinthian  votaries  for  the  safety  of 
Greece  against  the  Persian  invasion  ;  in  remembrance 
of  which,  at  the  end  of  the  war,  the  Corinthians  are 
said  to  have  dedicated  to  the  goddess  a  painted 
tablet  :— 

"  These  divine  women  to  fair  Venus  prayed 
To  give  the  straggling  friends  of  Greece  her  aid ; 
And  She  the  Greek  Acropolis  decreed 
Not  to  yield  up  to  the  bow-bearing  Mede." 

The  patriotic  spirit  displayed  by  these  ladies  would 
probably  make  Simonides  somewhat  indulgent  to  any 
defects  in  their  private  or  public  character. 

As  we  are  about  to  leave  Simonides  for  the  present, 
it  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  comment  upon  the 
blame  which  has  been  attached  to  his  conduct  in  con- 
nection with  the  family  of  Pisistratus.  Notwitlistand- 


DEDICATORY.  33 

ing  the  kindness  that  he  had  received  from  Hipparchus 
and  his  brother,  and  the  friendship  that  subsisted  be- 
tween them  and  him,  he  allowed  himself  to  celebrate 
the  assassination  of  Hipparchus  (for  it  deserves  no 
other  name),  in  a  well-known  epigram,  which  may  be 
thus  translated  : — 

"  Truly  a  great  light  met  the  Athenians'  view, 
What  time  his  sword  Aristogiton  drew, 
And,  with  Harmodius'  help,  Hipparchus  slew." 

Blamable  as  this  may  appear,  there  may  have  been 
excuses  for  Simonides's  conduct  which  are  not  fully 
manifest.  He  may  have  seen  or  thought  that  the  Athe- 
nian genius  required  for  its  full  development  greater 
fivcdom  than  was  afforded  by  an  absolute  Government ; 
or  lie  may  have  seen  in  the  individual  rulers  faults  of 
character  which  were  dangerous  to  liberty.  Hippias, 
after  his  brother's  death,  became  a  ruthless  tyrant  ; 
and  when  he  was  himself  displaced,  his  conduct  in 
joining  the  Persians,  and  in  instigating  and  assisting 
to  organise  their  invasion  of  Attica,  showed  him  to  be 
destitute  of  true  magnanimity,  principle,  or  patriotism. 

The  feeling  of  the  Athenians,  as  excited  by  the  vic- 
tories which  they  gained  over  the  Persian  invaders, 
and  particularly  their  earliest  triumph  at  Marathon, 
were  of  a  striking  character.  They  seem  to  have  ex- 
perienced little  personal  elation,  and  to  have  been 
strongly  impressed  with  the  danger  of  indulging  in 
any  self -laudation  or  assumption  >£  personal  merit. 
Pagans  as  they  were,  they  had  something  of  that 
'utmility  which,  under  a  nobler  dispensation,  iu- 

A.  c.  vol.  xx.  0 


34  TllK  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

spired  the  psalm  of  "Non  nobis,  Domine."  "The 
victory,"  as  observed  by  Thirlwall,  "  was  viewed  by 
the  people  as  a  deliverance  which  could  not  have 
been  effected  by  their  own  arm  without  the  friendly 
interposition  of  a  higher  power."  Hence  their  dedica- 
tion to  Xemesis.  Hence  their  belief  in  the  interposi- 
tion of  Pan,  and  their  erection  of  a  statue  to  him. 
"Hence  the  wonderful  legends  of  the  battle:  the 
valiant  Epizelus  is  blinded  in  the  heat  of  the  tight 
by  the  apparition  of  a  warrior,  whose  shield  is  covered 
by  his  flowing  beard  :  the  local  heroes  are  active  in 
the  combat ;  and  in  the  picture  that  represented  it  on 
the  walls  of  the  Painted  Porch,  Theseus  appeared 
rising  out  of  the  ground  with  Marathon  and  Hercules; 
and  the  hero  Echetlus,  armed  with  a  ploughshare,  was 
seen  dealing  death  among  the  flying  barbarians  :  hence 
to  this  day  the  field  of  Marathon  is  believed  to  be 
haunted,  as  in  the  time  of  Pausanias,  with  spectral 
warriors,  and  the  shepherds  are  alarmed  in  the  night 
by  their  shouts,  and  by  the  neighing  of  their  steeds." 

Simonides,  who  so  nobly  celebrated  these  noble  ex- 
ploits, was  not  himself  a  soldier ;  but  vEschylus  was 
a  soldier  as  well  as  a  poet.  He  fought  at  Marathon  ; 
and  there  seems  to  have  been  a  tradition  that  he  com- 
peted unsuccessfully  with  Simonides  for  an  elegy  on 
those  who  fell  in  battle  on  that  field.  He  died  at  an 
advanced  age  at  Gela,  in  Sicily,  and  is  said  to  have 
written  an  epitaph  on  himself  which  the  inhabitants 
of  Gela  inscribed  on  a  monument  erected  in  his  honour. 
The  epitaph,  of  which  a  translation  is  here  subjoined, 
is  remarkable  for  its  making  mention  of  his  military 


DEDICATORY.  35 

achievements  without  adverting  to  his  literary  suc- 
cess : — 

"Athenian  JSschylus,  Euphorion's  son, 
This  tomb  at  Gi-la  holds,  his  race  now  run. 
His  deeds,  the  grove  of  Mural  lion  could  tell, 
And  many  a  long-haired  Median  knows  them  well." 

There  also  distinguished  himself,  at  Marathon,  a 
brother  of  ./Eschylus,  Cynegirus,  another  son  of 
Euphorion's.  This  man,  who  became  an  almost 
fabulous  hero  of  Greece,  clung  with  his  hands  to  the 
side  of  a  Persian  vessel  that  was  retreating,  and,  when 
one  hand  was  cut  off,  held  on  by  the  other  till  tint 
also  was  severed,  when  he  fell  dead.  The  fame  of 
an  action  like  this,  as  gallant  at  least  as  that  of 
Witherington  in  the  ballad  of  "  Chevy  Chase,"  lost 
nothing  in  the  subsequent  telling  of  it ;  and  the  tradi- 
tion came  to  be  that,  after  his  second  hand  was  cut 
off,  he  tried  to  stop  the  vessel  with  his  teeth.  The 
following  epigram  was  at  a  later  period  composed  upon 
a  portrait  of  him  by  Phasis,  which  represented  him 
with  both  his  hands  : — 

"  Blest  Cynegirus,  some  think  Phasis  wrong 
In  giving  you  those  hands,  so  stout  and  strong : 
No  ;  lie  was  wise  those  hands  to  let  us  see 
By  which  you  gained  your  immortality." 

Another  of  the  pre-eminent  heroes  of  Greece  whose 
reputation  for  bravery  has  been  elevated  to  a  proverbial 
celebrity  is  the  Spartan  Othryades,  who  was  one  of 
three  hundred  of  his  countrymen  selected  to  fight  with 


36  Til K  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

an  equal  number  of  Argives  for  the  sovereignty  of 
Thyrea,  a  frontier  town  between  Laconia  and  Argolis. 
The  battle  was  bravely  contested  on  both  sides,  till 
there  remained  only  two  of  the  Argives,  who,  believing 
themselves  to  be  the  sole  survivors  of  the  six  hundred, 
returned  to  Argos  to  announce  their  victory.  In  fact, 
however,  Othryades,  the  last  of  the  Spartans,  though 
struck  down  and  bleeding,  was  still  alive,  and  upon 
the  departure  of  the  Argives  collected  together  the 
shields  and  weapons  of  the  enemy,  and  erected  or 
hung  them  up  as  a  trophy,  surmounted  with  his  own 
shii-ld,  on  which  he  wrote  in  his  blood  the  words, 
"Thyrea,  Jupiter,  belongs  to  the  Lacedemonians." 
Upon  this  ground,  as  proving  that  Othryades  had 
kept  the  field  when  the  Argives  had  either  fallen  or 
fled,  the  Spartans  claimed  the  victory,  and  successfully 
maintained  their  right  in  a  general  battle. 

Upon  this  event  two  epigrams  are  preserved,  one 
written  as  from  the  Spartan,  the  other  as  from  the 
Argive  side  of  the  question  : — 

"  When,  native  Sparta,  the  Inachian  band 
We  fought,  in  numbers  matched,  for  Thyrea's  land, 
Thy  brave  three  hundred  never  turned  aside, 
But  where  our  feet  were  planted  there  we  died. 
The  words  that  on  his  shield  Othryades, 
Claiming  the  victory,  wrote  with  blood  were  these  : 
'  Thyrea  is  Sparta's,  Jove.'     If  it  be  said 
That  any  Argive  from  that  combat  nod, 
He  owns  Adrastus'  kin  :  'tis  death  to  fly, 
So  Sparta  deems  :— It  is  not  death  to  die." 

In  the  other  epigram,  as  on  the  side  of  the  Argives, 


DEDICATORY.  37 

the  two  survivors  are  supposed  to  have  returned  to 
the  field,  where  they  find  the  expiring  Spartan  lying 
beside  the  trophy  which  he  had  set  up,  and  which 
their  religious  scruples  prevented  them  from  destroy- 


"  Who  hung  those  new-ta'en  arms  upon  the  tree  ? 
What  on  this  Dorian  targe  may  written  be  ? 
The  Th\  rean  ground  with  hostile  blood  is  dyed, 
And  we  two  of  our  friends  alone  abide. 
(Seek  out  each  fallen  foe,  that  none  may  claim, 
Living,  a  false  increase  to  Sparta's  fame. 
But  stay  !  in  blood  Othryades'  red  shield 
For  Sparta  claims  the  honours  of  the  field, 
While  he  now  gasps  for  breath.     O  righteous  Jove  ! 
These  signs  of  unjust  victory  reprove." 

The  traditional  fame  enjoyed  by  these  two  heroes, 
Cynegirus  and  Othryades,  may  be  seen  from  a  much 
later  epigram  (if  an  epigram  it  may  be  called)  by 
Crinagoras  upon  the  valour  of  an  Italian  soldier, 
though  it  may  scarcely  be  thought  that  what  this  hero 
accomplished  deserved  the  flourish  of  trumpets  with 
which  his  story  is  introduced  : — 

"  Tell  us  not  of  Cynegirus, 

Leave  Othryades  unsung  ; 
Other  deeds  to-day  inspire  us, 

Claiming  praise  from  every  tongue. 
In  the  Rhine's  well-watered  re-ion, 

Where  a  Roman  soldier  lay, 
See  !  the  eagle  of  his  legion 

Carried  by  the  foe  away  ! 
Though  his  strength  and  life  were  sinking, 

Bravely  he  resolved  to  rise  ; 


38  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Faced  the  captor  without  shrinking, 
And  regained  the  precious  prize. 

When  the  standard,  thus  recovered, 
To  its  ancient  guards  had  passed, 

Triumph  o'er  his  features  hovered, 
And  in  joy  he  breathed  his  last." 

It  may  bo  a  relief  to  get  out  of  these  warlike  themes 
to  a  calmer  region,  and  to  see  the  tendencies  of  the 
Greek  mind,  in  those  dedications  to  the  divine  powers 
which  seem  to  have  been  habitually  practised  in 
private  life.  It  will  be  interesting  to  follow  these 
through  the  different  stages  at  which  they  occurred. 

Here  is  one  which  sets  forth  the  prayer  and  offering 
of  a  young  maiden,  apparently  with  the  concurrence  of 
her  mother  ;  or  perhaps  it  is  the  prayer  of  a  mother 
for  her  daughter,  addressed  to  Ehea,  the  mother  of  the 
gods,  for  a  prosperous  life, — not  forgetting  an  eligible 
establishment  in  marriage.  The  author  is  Leonidas  of 
Tarentum,  a  pleasing  and  voluminous  epigrammatist, 
belonging  apparently  to  the  third  century  B.O.  The 
translation  is  by  Merivale  : — 

"  0  holy  Mother  !  on  the  peak 
Of  Dindyma,  and  on  those  summits  Weak 

That  frown  on  Phrygia's  scorched  plain, 
Holding  thy  throne, — with  fav'ring  aspect  deign 
To  smile  on  Aristodice, 
Scilene's  virgin  child,  that  she 
May  grow  in  beauty  and  her  charms  improve 
To  fulness,  and  invite  connubial  love. 
For  this,  thy  poiv.h  she  seeks,  with  tributes  rare, 
And  o'er  thine  altars  straws  her  votive  hair." 


DEDICATORY.  39 

The  next,  by  an  anonymous  author,  contains  a  minute 
account  of  the  dedication  to  Diana  by  a  virgin  "  about 
to  marry  "  of  her  girlish  playthings  and  head-dress  : — 

"  Timarete,  her  wedding-day  now  near, 
To  Artemis  has  laid  these  offerings  here, — 
Her  tambourine,  her  pleasant  ball,  the  net 
As  a  safe  guardian  o'er  her  tresses  set ; 
Her  maiden  dolls,  in  mimic  robes  arrayed, 
Gifts  titling  for  a  maid  to  give  a  maid. 
Goddess,  thy  hand  upon  her  kindly  lay, 
And  keep  her  holy  in  thy  holy  way." 

The  next  is  from  a  matron  who  dedicates  her  gifts 
and  thanks  to  three  goddesses  for  the  multiplied  boons 
with  which  her  life  has  been  enriched :  it  is  by 
Agathias  : — 

"  To  Venus  garlands — braids  of  clustering  hair 
To  Pallas,  and  her  zone  to  Artemis, 
Callirrhoe  gave — tit  tributes  offered  there, 
Whence  to  her  lot  hail  fallen  a  triple  bliss. 
A  loved  and  loving  suitor  she  had  wed, 
In  modest  purity  her  life  was  led, 
And  a  male  race  of  children  blessed  her  bed." 

A  matron  thus  returns  her  thanks  for  the  interest- 
ing event  of  the  birth  of  twins.  It  is  by  Leonidas, 
and  is  addressed  to  the  Goddess  of  Parturition  : — 

"  Here,  Ilethyia,  at  thy  noble  feet 
Ambrosia  lays  a  grateful  offering  meet — 
A  robe  and  head-dress — favoured  by  thy  power 
In  the  son-  travail  of  her  perilous  hour; 
And  in  due  season  •trengthenud  to  bring  forth 
A  double  offspring  at  a  happy  birth." 


40  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

A  young  lad  here  makes  an  offering  to  Mercury  of 
the  childish  things  which  he  was  then  laying  aside. 
It  is  by  Leonidas  : — 

"  To  Hermes,  this  fair  ball  of  pleasant  sound, 
This  boxen  rattle,  fraught  with  lively  noise, 
These  maddening  dice,  this  top  well  whirling  round, — 
Philocles  has  hung  up,  his  boyhood's  toys." 

This  is  another,  by  Euphorion,  recording  the  conse- 
cration by  a  young  man  of  the  first-fruits  of  his  hair 
to  Apollo,  possibly  at  Delphi — a  ceremony  which  was 
performed  as  a  religious  act — the  hair  at  Athens  and 
elsewhere  in  Greece  being  cut  for  the  first  time  on  the 
termination  of  boyhood.  The  youth  referred  to  ap- 
pears, from  the  allusion  to  ivy,  to  have  shown  poetical 
aspirations,  of  which  an  ivy  wreath  would  be  the 
appropriate  reward : — 

"  When  first  Eudoxus  cut  the  locks  he  wore, 
That  charm  of  boyhood  he  to  Phoebus  bore  ; 
Instead  of  locks,  Far-darter,  hear  his  vow, 
And  let  Acharniun  ivy  wreath  his  brow." 

Our  next  epigram,  by  an  uncertain  author,  shows 
the  youth  advancing  towards  manhood  : — 

"  Lycon,  the  rising  down  that  first  appeared, 
To  Phcebus  gave,  the  presage  of  a  beard ; 
And  prayed  that  so  he  might  in  after-years, 
On  his  grey  locks,  as  now,  employ  the  shears. 
Grant  this  request,  and  on  his  age  bestow 
The  honour  that  should  crown  a  head  of  snow." 

Just  as  the  youth  made  an  ollV-ring  of  the  things  of 


DEDICATORY.  41 

his  childhood,  and  the  incipient  young  man  of  the 
signs  of  his  adolescence,  so  the  worn-out  labourer  or 
craftsman  devoted  to  some  deity  the  implements  which 
he  could  no  longer  wield.  Thus,  a  fisherman  oilers 
his  net,  in  an  epigram  by  Julian  the  Egyptian.  He 
has  written  several  on  the  same  subject,  but  we  take 
the  shortest  as  a  specimen  : — 

"  Old  Cyniras  to  the  Nymphs  this  net :  no  more 
His  strength  can  stand  the  toils  that  once  it  bore : 
Rejoice,  ye 'fishes,  .spurting  in  the  sea> 
From  danger  at  his  hands  you  now  are  free." 

There  was  no  want  of  offerings  to  the  gods,  particu- 
larly to  those  connected  with  husbandry,  as  an  induce- 
ment to  grant  the  votary's  prayer  for  continued  or 
increased  abundance.  Biton,  an  old  man,  makes  offer- 
ings to  three  deities  to  propitiate  their  favour  in  pro- 
tecting and  increasing  his  rural  wealth.  The  epigram 
we  give  is  by  Sabinus,  and  runs  thus : — 

"  Roses,  the  Nymphs, — and  Pan,  a  kid — received  in  this 

green  shade 

From  Biton  ;  and  for  Bacchus  too  a  thyrsus  here  he  laid. 
Accept   the   gifts,  and    prosper  well,  ye   several  Powers 

Divine, — 
Pan  and  the  Nymphs,  the  flocks  and  founts, — Bacchus,  the 

joyous  wine." 

We  have  just  had  an  example  of  offerings  by  one 
person  to  thiee  deities ;  we  shall  now  give,  from 
Leonidas,  a  record  of  offerings  made  to  one  deity  by 
three  comrades,  employed  in  several  forms  of  hunting 
or  capture,  but  all  of  them,  it  would  appear,  carried  on 


42  THE  GRKEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

by  moans  of  the  net.  There  are  many  editions  of  this 
idea  by  different  authors,  but  we  prefer  that  of  Leon- 
idas,  which  is  the  shortest  of  them  : — 

"  Three  brothers  dedicate,  O  Pan,  to  thee, 
Their  nets,  the  various  emblems  of  their  toil  ; 
Pigres,  who  brings  from  realms  of  air  his  spoil, 
Dames,  from  woods,  and  Clitor  from  the  sea. 
So  may  the  treasures  of  the  deep  be  given 
To  this — to  those  the  fruits  of  earth,  and  heaven." 

Leaving  the  dry  land,  we  give  an  epigram  recording 
the  offering  to  the  sea-gods  by  a  man  saved  from  ship- 
wreck. It  is  by  Lucian  : — 

"  To  Glaucus,  Nereus,  Ino,  and  to  Melicerte  as  well, 

To  Neptune,  and  the  mystic  powers  in  Samothrace  that 

dwell, 
Grateful  that,  from  the  sea  preserved,  he  now  on  shore  can 

live, 
Lucillus  cuts  and  gives  these  hairs  —  'tis  all  he  has  to 

give." 

This  is  a  similar  tribute  in  an  epigram  by  Diodorus  : — 

"  When,  the  wind  stirring  the  Carpathian  main, 
The  yard  gave  way  in  that  night's  hurricane, 
Diogenes,  beholding,  made  the  vow 
That  from  impending  fate  if  rescued  now, 
Cabeirus,  great  Boeotian  god,  to  thee 
He  would,  within  thy  precincts  hang  up  ME — 
A  little  garment — this  he  now  performs. 
Oh  !  save  him  both  from  poverty  and  storms/' 

In  e?ch  of  these  last  two  epigrams  allusion  is  made  to 
the  Cabiri,  who,  being  worshipped  originally  in  Egypt, 
became  Samothracian  divinities,  and  were  worshipped 
also  in  Bocotia.  It  was  believed  that  those  who  wen- 


DEDICATORY.  43 

initiated  in  their  mysteries  would  be  saved  in  a  storm 
at  sea  upon  appealing  to  them  for  preservation. 

Here  is  a  dedication  of  the  offerer's  ship  itself,  which 
is  no  longer  to  go  to  sea,  and  along  with  which  he  has 
hid  farewell  to  a  seafaring  life  and  its  vicissitudes.  It 
is  by  Macedonius  : — 

''  King  of  the  sea,  and  Ruler  of  the  shore, 
This  ship,  ordained  to  touch  the  waves  no  more, 
I,  Crantas,  give  to  thee, — a  ship  long  driven 
In  sport  before  the  wandering  winds  of  heaven  ; 
In  which,  oft  sailing,  1  have  thought  with  dread, 
I  soon  might  reach  the  regions  of  the  dead. 
Renouncing  winds  and  waves,  and  hope  and  fear, 
Now  on  dry  land  I  fix  my  footstep  here." 

The  conceptions  of  the  Greeks  in  their  votive  offerings 
were  often  of  a  fanciful  kind.  The  epigram  that  fol- 
lows, said  to  be  by  Plato  (but  probably  not  the  philo- 
sopher), proceeds  upon  this  incident,  real  or  supposed  : 
"  A  traveller  who,  when  nearly  exhausted  by  thirst,  is 
guided  by  the  croaking  of  a  frog  to  a  spring  of  water, 
dedicates  to  the  Nymphs  a  bronze  image  of  his  pre- 
server." 

The  following  translation,  though  not  so  ambitious 
as  sonic  we  have  before  us,  is  nearer  the  original : — 

"  The  servant  of  the  Nymphs,  who  loves  the  showers, 
The  minstrel  moist,  who  lurks  in  watery  bowers, 
A  frog,  in  bronze,  a  Wayfarer  here  laid, 
AY  hose  burning  thirst  was  quenehtx]  by  welcome  aid. 
By  the  hoarse,  monitor's  amphibious  tone 
A  hidden  spring  \vas  to  the  wanderer  shown, 
lie  followed,  nor  forsook  the  guiding  sound 
Till  the  much-wisheil-t'or  draught  he  grateful  found." 


44  THE  GKJSKK  ANTHOLOGY. 

In  a  remarkable  epigram  by  Leonidas,  Mars  is  made 
to  reject  with  indignation  the  dedication  to  himself  of 
arms  that  had  never  seen  military  service.  The  trans- 
lation is  Mr  Hodgson's  : — 

"  Away  with  spoils  like  these  ! — they  are  not  mine  ; — 
Hateful  to  Mars,  nor  worthy  of  his  shrine  : 
Uudeft  the  helm,  unstained  with  blood  the  shield, 
The  inglorious  spear,  unbroken  in  the  field. 
Reddening  with  shame,  I  feel  the  hot  drops  flow, 
In  scorn  lor  cowards,  from  my  blushing  brow. 
These,  let  some  lover  range  in  wanton  pride 
Round  nuptial  halls  and  chambers  of  the  bride. 
Hang  in  the  temple  of  the  god  of  fight 
Arms  dropping  gore  ;  for  such  his  soul  delight." 

The  next  epigram  we  shall  give  records  an  interesting 
dedication  of  a  quiver  and  arrows  by  a  father  who,  by 
a  feat  of  archery  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  William 
Tell,  had  saved  his  little  son's  life,  and  was  resolved 
that  weapons  once  used  for  so  beneficent  a  purpose 
should  never  more  be  employed  in  the  work  of  de- 
struction : — 

"  Alcon  beheld  his  boy,  while  laid  to  rest, 
Close  in  a  deadly  serpent's  folds  compressed  : 
He  bent  his  bow  with  hand  that  thrilled  with  dread, 
But  did  not  miss  his  mark — the  arrow  sped 
Right  thro'  the  monster's  jaws  with  prosperous  aim, 
Near,  but  not  touching,  the  dear  infunt's  frame. 
His  quiver,  fraught  with  shafts  devised  to  kill, 
Hangs  on  this  oak,  released  from  working 
A  record  of  good  fortune  and  good  skill. 

The  story  on  which  Gietnlicus,  its  author,  has  founded 
this  inscription,  is  referred  to  by  several  ancient  writers 


ed  to  kill,  \ 
•king  ill,  ( 
till."  ) 


DEDICATORY.  45 

as  well  known.  The  boy  thus  saved  is  said  to  have 
been  named  Phalcrus,  and  subsequently  to  have  be- 
come one  of  the  Argonauts. 

Another  of  the  dedicatory  class  of  epigrams  to  which 
we  shall  refer  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  all,  and 
is  ascribed  to  one  of  the  greatest  names  among  the 
anthological  poets.  It  is  the  dedication  by  Lais  to 
Venus  of  her  looking-glass,  of  which  the  author  is  said 
to  be  Plato  the  philosopher.  It  has  been  imitated  by 
Prior  in  the  well-known  quatrain  : — 

"  Venus  !  take  this  votive  glass, 
Since  I  am  not  what  I  was : 
What  I  shall  hereafter  be, 
Venus  !  let  me  never  see." 

Heat  as  these  lines  are,  and  involving  the  essential 
ideas  of  the  epigram,  they  are  not  sufficiently  full  or 
so  like  the  original  as  might  be  wished.  We  give  what 
follows,  out  of  many  literal  versions  which  have  been 
attempted : — 

"  Lais,  who  smiled  at  Greece  with  scornful  pride, 
I,  at  whose  doors  a  swarm  of  lovers  sighed, 
This  glass  to  Venus  :  since  what  I  shall  be 
I  would  not,  what  I  was,  I  cannot,  see." 

Plato's  epigram  was  imitated  and  expanded  by  Julian 
the  Egyptian,  of  which  the  following,  though  rafcher  a 
condensed  version,  will  show  the  additional  points  that 
Julian  introduced : — 

"  I,  Lais,  who  on    conquered  Greece  looked  down  with 

haughty  pride  ; 
I,  to  whose  courts  in  other  days  a  swarm  of  lovers  hied, 


46  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

O,  ever  lovely  Venus  !  now  this  mirror  give  to  thee  ; 
For  my  present  self  I  would  not,  and  my  past  I  cannot 
see." 

The  general  idea  of  a  beautiful  woman  relinquishing 
her  looking-glass  on  discovering  that  her  charms  begin 
to  wane,  presents  a  picture  that  has  in  it  both  a  shade 
of  sadness  and  a  touch  of  satire.  Apart  from  its 
mechanical  uses,  her  looking-glass,  it  must  be  confessed, 
is  no  unimportant  element  in  a  woman's  life ;  and  it 
may  be  said  to  be  a  necessary  help  to  her  attaining 
that  complete  self-knowledge  at  which  all  should  aim. 
It  is  right  that  a  woman  should  know  whether  she  is 
beautiful  or  not.  Socrates  is  said  to  have  enjoined  all 
young  persons  to  look  often  into  their  glass  to  ascertain 
if  they  were  good-looking — that,  if  they  were  so,  they 
might  strive  to  make  their  mental  attainments  cor- 
respond ;  and  if  they  were  not  so,  then  that  they 
might  endeavour  by  the  superior  accomplishments  of 
their  minds  to  compensate  for  their  personal  short- 
comings. The  fondness  for  this  species  of  self-con- 
templation seems  to  be  strong  in  the  sex  in  general. 
Novelists  describe  the  village  coquette  as  delighting  to 
admire  her  face  in  a  small  fragment  of  a  looking-glass  ; 
and  in  one  of  Southey's  books  we  are  told  of  the  poor 
Portuguese  nuns  who  had  never  seen  the  reflection 
of  themselves  from  the  time  of  entering  their  place  of 
seclusion  until  the  nunneries  were  thrown  open  by  the 
ell'ects  of  the  French  invasion.  The  first  impulse  of 
them  all  was  to  fly  to  a  looking-gkss  that  they  might 
see  their  own  faces — a  sight  which  to  most  of  them 
would  seem  strange  indeed,  and  would  inflict  the  same 


DEDICATORY.  47 

kind  of  pain  that  Lais  was  determined  to  avoid.    Ovid 
somewhere  tells  a  lady — 

"The  time  will  come  when  this  your  old  delight, 
Your  mirror,  will  present  no  pleasant  sight." 

This  era,  at  which  a  woman's  looking-glass  becomes 
distasteful  to  her,  must  bring  with  it  a  severe  trial  and 
a  crisis  in  her  character.  In  a  light  French  comedy  a 
handsome  and  gay  widow  is  one  day  found  by  her  friends 
and  admirers  to  be  in  a  very  wayward  mood,  the  ex- 
planation of  which,  on  careful  inquiry,  is  found  to  be 
that  she  had  that  morning  observed  in  her  glass  the 
first  wrinkle  that  had  visited  her  face.  It  must  require 
in  the  case  of  an  established  beauty  no  small  degree  of 
good-humour,  good  sense,  and  strength  of  mind  to  sub- 
mit cheerfully  to  the  change  thus  commencing  ;  and  it 
will  be  well  for  her  if  she  has  already  followed  the  ad- 
vice that  Ovid  gives  to  a  young  woman  : — 

"  Build  up  the  Mind  to  prop  frail  Beauty's  power  ! 
The  mind  alone  lasts  to  life's  latest  hour."  * 

But  Plato's  epigram  will  not  let  us  confine  our  atten- 
tion to  the  general  aspect  of  the  situation  ;  we  are 
compelled  to  look  at  it  with  special  reference  to  Greek 
manners,  and  in  particular  to  that  painful  subject,  the 
condition  of  women  in  Greece.  Whatever  liberty 
women  may  have  enjoyed  in  the  heroic  or  earlier  times, 

*  The  beauty  who  thus  passes  into  the  list  of  Has-licon's 
may,  however,  console  herself  with  the  sentiment  expressed  l>y 
a  clever  wit  to  a  pbon-loaklDg  woman  who  was  taunting  l>v 
that  epithet  a  veteran  belle,  that  "  the  Has-been's  were  at  lea&t 
better  than  the  tfcvcr-was-cs." 


48  THE  GRREK  ANTHOLOGY. 

it  is  certain  that  in  Greek  society  in  its  more  advanced 
period,  and  especially  at  Athens  in  the  time  of  PJato,  the 
position  of  the  Greek  wife  presented  a  strange  con- 
trast to  that  of  the  foreign  companion.  The  wife  was 
certainly  not  the  companion  of  her  husband.  She  was 
the  mother  and  the  nurse  of  his  children,  and  the 
housekeeper  or  upper  servant  in  his  establishment; 
and  though  she  partook  of  his  meals  when  they  were 
alone,  she  rarely  did  so  when  other  men  were  present, 
and  never  joined  in  his  feasts  or  convivial  meetings. 
Her  place  was  in  the  seclusion  of  home,  from  which 
she  only  emerged,  if  at  all,  under  rigid  restrictions.  In 
a  degree  corresponding  with  these  servile  duties  and  re- 
straints seems  to  have  been  the  cultivation  or  want  of 
cultivation  of  the  women's  minds,  which  rendered  them 
little  capable  of  holding  any  enlightened  intercourse 
with  their  husbands  or  sympathising  in  any  intellectual 
pursuits.  As  to  education,  young  women  may  be  said 
to  have  had  none ;  and  their  time  must  indeed  have 
been  drearily  passed.  We  may  here  quote  an  epigram 
of  Agathias  on  the  subject,  who  lived  at  a  much  later 
period,  when  a  glimpse  of  better  things  must  have 
been  introduced  from  the  growing  influence  of  Chris- 
tian feelings.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  complaint  put 
into  the  mouth  of  a  susceptible  Greek  maiden,  and 
shows  that  even  in  that  day  the  old  habits  had  not 
yet  disappeared.  The  version  is  by  Mr  Swayne  : — 

"  Ah  !  youths  never  know  the  weight  of  care, 
That  delicate-spirited  women  must  bear. 
For  comrades  of  cheery  speech  have  they, 
To  blandish  the  woes  of  thought  away  : 


DEDICATORY.  49 

With  games  they  can  cheat  the  hours  at  home, 
And  whenever  abroad  in  the  streets  they  roam 
With  the  colours  of  painting  they  glad  themselves. 
But  as  for  us,  poor  prisoned  elves, 
We  are  .•'hut  out  from  sunlight,  buried  in  rooms, 
And  fretted  away  by  our  fancy's  glooms." 

In  strong  contrast  with  the  position  of  the  Greek 
maiden  and  matron  of  respectable  and  native  parent- 
age was  that  of  the  foreign  women  who  were  found  in 
Greece.  On  turning  to  Mr  Theodore  Martin's  volume 
on  Horace  in  this  series,  p.  109,  the  reader  will  find  an 
account  of  the  demi-monde  that  frequented  Rome  ;  hut 
still  more  conspicuous  and  attractive  were  the  Greek 
Hetaine,  whose  headquarters  may  lie  said  to  have  heen 
Corinth.  Just  as  the  native  Greek  women  were  ex- 
cluded from  society,  these  foreigners — whose  number 
seems  to  have  been  swelled  by  the  addition  sometimes 
of  foundlings,  who  had  no  recognised  parentage — were 
excluded  from  marriage ;  no  union  that  they  could 
form  being  other  than  temporary  or  precarious  in  law. 
Aspasia  was  as  much  the  wife  of  Pericles  as  the  law 
would  allow  ;  but  when  he  lost  the  two  legitimate  sons 
that  his  first  and  lawful  wife  brought  him,  he  could 
not  look  to  his  boy  by  Aspasia  as  in  any  respect  en- 
titled to  the  status  of  a  son  ;  and  it  was  only  by  an  act 
of  special  grace  that  the  young  man  was  legitimised  by 
the  Athenian  people,  and  added  to  his  father's  tribe 
with  his  father's  name. 

In  this  degraded  position  these  "  strange  "  women 
were  brought  up,  with  all  the  accomplishments  of 
which  the  female  mind  is  capable,  and  with  all  the 

A.  c.  vol.  xx.  D 


50  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

arts  of  allurement  that  could  attract  and  fix  their  lovers, 
so  far  at  least  as  such  accomplishments  and  attractions 
can  be  attained  without  the  support  of  moral  dignity. 
Singing  and  instrumental  music,  dancing  and  sprightly 
conversation,  were  their  special  subjects  of  study  ;  and 
some  of  them,  such  as  Aspasia,  seem  also  to  have  been 
educated  in  the  highest  and  most  intellectual  acquire- 
ments. Supposing  it  to  have  been  a  satirical  or  ex- 
aggerated statement  that  Aspasia  composed  the  best  of 
Pericles's  speeches,  the  suggestion  would  have  had  no 
point  unless  she  was  believed  to  have  possessed  a  high 
degree  of  genius  and  cultivation.  It  was  these  women 
who  were  the  "  companions"  of  men,  and  specially  of 
young  men,  in  their  convivial  repasts,  when  women 
were  admitted  at  all;  and  it  was  their  powers  of  amuse- 
ment and  hilarity  that  constituted  their  most  delightful 
and  most  dangerous  charm.  This  was  a  miserable  state 
of  society,  in  which  an  impassable  gulf  intervened  be- 
tween the  Virtuous  and  the  Attractive  ;  and  a  serious 
reflection  must  here  awaken  our  minds  to  a  strong 
sense  of  the  social  benefits  which,  besides  other  bless- 
ings, Christianity  has  conferred  on  us,  in  elevating  the 
position  of  women  as  compared  with  the  place  they 
have  occupied  under  other  systems  of  religion,  whether 
Pagan  or  Mohammedan. 

The  epigrams  just  quoted  as  to  Lais  have  a  plain 
reference  to  her  condition  as  an  alien.  Her  birth- 
place seems  to  be  unknown  ;  but  if  it  was  Corinth,  she 
cannot  have  inherited  the  right  of  citizenship.  She 
is  represented  as  looking  with  scorn  on  Greece  as  a 
country  which  she  had  conquered  and  laid  captive  at 


DEDICATOR)'.  51 

her  feet ;  but  it  is  easy  to  see  with  what  bitterness  and 
deep  melancholy  a  woman  with  her  history  and  hrr 
prospects  must  have  regarded  the  impending  loss  of 
thut  beauty  which,  however  aided  by  mental  qualities 
and  acquirements,  must  have  been  the  chief  basis  of 
her  great  but  precarious  and  transitory  influence.  AVc 
shall  dismiss  this  imperial  and  imperious  beauty  by 
giving  an  epigram  by  Antipater  of  Sidon,  upon  her 
general  character  and  situation,  though  it  belongs  pro- 
perly to  the  class  of  epitaphs,  and  comes  in  here  only 
as  an  illustration  of  what  has  above  been  said.  The 
translation  is  by  Hay: — 

"  Luis,  who  walked  in  gold  and  purple  dyes, 
Here  on  her  sea-girt  Corinth  lowly  lies — 
The  pampered  friend  of  Eros,  whom  that  elf 
Nurtured  more  daintily  than  Venus'  self. 
Brighter  this  human  goddess  than  the  stream, 
Which  in  Pirene  sheds  its  fulgent  gleam  : 
And  wooers  more  she  had  who  sought  her  arms, 
Than  ever  sighed  for  brilliant  Helen's  charms. 
And  many  revelled  in  those  graces — sold 
For  the  false  glare  of  all  subduing  gold. 
Even  in  her  ashes  lives  the  rich  perfume 
Of  odours  ever  floating  round  her  tomb  : 
Steeped  are  her  locks  in  myrrh  ;  the  buxom  air 
Inliales  the  fragrance  of  her  essenced  hair. 
And  when  slie  difd,  Cythera  near  her  stood 
With  grief-soik'd  cheeks,  and  Eros  sobbed  aloud. 
Oh  !  if  these  charms  so  many  hud  not  bought, 
Greece  had  for  Lais  as  for  Helen  fought." 

Let  us  add  here,  that  whatever  may  have  been  the 
general  tendency  of  Greek  manners  in  these  respects, 
there  could  never  be  wanting  cases  in  which  nature 


52  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

would  assert  her  rights,  and  a  pure  affection  be  formed 
between  young  lovers,  terminating  in  wedlock.  We 
shall  hereafter  see  some  proofs  of  the  truth  of  this 
remark. 

It  was,  we  have  seen,  a  prominent  part  of  the  Greek 
and  Roman  religions  to  deify,  or  connect  with  deity, 
the  most  attractive  or  most  important  natural  objects 
— particularly  rivers,  fountains,  and  trees.  These 
seem  often  to  have  been  regarded  as  themselves  divine  ; 
but  at  least  they  were  held  to  be  inhabited  or  fre- 
quented by  divine  beings,  or  were  placed  under  their 
protection.  Fountains,  so  invaluable  a  boon  in  a 
warm  climate,  are  special  favourites.  Horace,  in  one 
of  the  most  delightful  of  his  odes,  which  our  readers 
will  find  in  the  appropriate  volume  of  this  series,  at 
p.  72,  vows  to  sacrifice  a  kid  to  the  fountain  of  Ban- 
el  usia  in  return  for  the  cool  refreshment  it  afforded. 
At  this  present  time  Celtic  antiquaries  in  France  are 
busied  in  tracing  the  signs  of  Water- worship  in  pagan 
ages,  and  think,  perhaps  fancifully,  that  in  various 
names  of  rivers,  such  as  the  Dee,  the  Don,  the  Devon, 
there  is  an  affinity  with  the  ancient  terms  for  Deity  or 
Divinity — an  etymology  which  seems  long  ago  to  have 
occurred  to  the  Latin  poet  Ausonius,  who  was  a 
Frenchman  by  birth.  This  is  a  translation  of  one  of 
his  lines  referring  to  the  chief  city  of  the  tribe  of 
the  Cadurci,  where  there  was  a  great  aqueduct: — 

"  The  Celtic  Divona,  a  fount  divine." 
Some  epigrams  on  the  subject  of  fountains  or  streams 


DEDICATORY.  63 

have  already  been  given.     Here  is  another  by  Hermo- 
creon  : — 

"  Ye  water-nymphs,  to  whom  Hermocreon  placed 
These  gifts,  when  a  fresh  fountain  here  lie  found, 
Hail !  and  when  those  fair  feet  n»y  home  have  graced, 
Be  tilled  with  the  pure  streams  that  flow  around." 

The.  epigram  that  follows  is,  as  will  be  seen,  an 
imaginary  dedication, *as  it  relates  to  an  historical  or 
rather  a  legendary  character,  Neoptolemus,  or  Pyrrhns 
as  he  was  called  from  the  fiery  colour  of  his  hair,  the 
son  of  Achilles  and  descendant  of  ^acus,  monarch  of 
^Egina,  The  epigram  seems  to  represent  Neoptolemus, 
whose  entry  into  public  life  was  very  warlike,  as 
now  settling  down  to  rural  employments,  and  making 
simple  offerings  to  the  divinities  by  whom,  he  was 
surrounded : — 

"  Ye  folds,  ye  hill-nymphs'  haunts,  ye  fountains  clear 
Under  the  cliff,  thou  pine-tree  rising  near, 
Thou  square-formed  Hermes,  saviour  of  the  flock, 
And  Pan,  thou  dweller  on  the  goat-hrowsed  rock, 
See  here  the  gifts  I  bring,  in  hope  to  please, — 
Cakes  and  a  wine-cup  full — accept  of  these 
From  Neoptolemus  ^Eiicides." 

The  only  reference  in  this  epigram  which  seems  to 
need  explanation  is  the  allusion  to  Hermes  or  Mer- 
cury, who  is  spoken  of  as  the  "  square-formed."  This 
was  the  general  shape  of  those  Hermre,  the  images 
which  were  so  frequent  as  measurements  of  distances 
or  marks  of  boundaries,  consisting  of  a  rude  square 
figure  with  a  head  but  no  hands.  More  recondite  ex- 
planations of  the  epithet  are  sometimes  given,  as  that 


54  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

the  dexterity  of  the  god  in  all  situations  was  such,  that 
like  a  cube  he  always  alighted  upon  a  stable  basis  ;  or 
that  he  was  the  inventor  of  the  four  great  discoveries 
of  letters,  music,  gymnastics,  and  geometry.  Mention 
is  made  by  Pausanias  of  a  square  figure  of  Mercury 
made  of  stone,  piqued  beside  imaged  jf  the  Nymphs, 
and  with  a  stream  of  water  issuing  from  his  left 
hand. 

Here  is  an  offering  to  some  aquatic  deities  from  a 
thirsty  traveller — by  Leonidas  of  Tarentum  : — 

"  Cool  stream,  where  waters  from  the  cleft  rock  start, 

Forms,  too,  of  Naiads,  carved  by  rustic  art, 

Ye  fountain-heads,  and  countless  spots  around, 

Made  lovely  by  your  rills  that  here  abound, 

Farewell !  and  from  a  wayfarer  receive 

The  hoiu  which  here  he  dipped  his  hot  thirst  to  relieve." 

It  is  from  the  statues  or  images  thus  placed  near 
fountains  or  in  beautiful  spots  of  scenery  that  we  may 
suppose  the  invitations  to  proceed,  which  the  epi- 
grams so  often  address  to  us,  to  seek  rest  or  refresh- 
ment. Here  are  some  specimens.  This  is  anonymous, 
supposed  to  be  spoken  by  Pan  from  his  image  near  a 
fountain  : — 

"  Come,  rest  beneath  my  pine-tree,  murmuring  sweet 
To  the  soft  zephyrs  it  delights  to  greet : 
Here,  by  this  limpid  stream  that  gurgling  flows, 
My  rustic  pipe  shall  soothe  you  to  repose." 

This  by  Anyt6  is  very  similar^  the  translation  altered 
from  Bland : — 


DEDICATORY.  55 

"  Stranger,  beneath  this  rock  thy  limbs  bestow  , 

Sweet  in  the  green  leaves  the  breeze  murmurs  here  : 
This  fountain's  stream  will  cool  the  summer's  glow  : 
Such  rest  is  ever  to  tired  pilgrims  dear." 

This  is  by  Hermocreon,  also  very  like  : — 

"  Sit,  passer-by,  this  plane-tree's  shade  beneath, 
Whose  leaves  are  stirred  when  soft  the  zephyrs  breathe  : 
Here  I  am  stationed,  Maia's  son  renowned, 
To  guard  Nicagoras'  goods  and  fruitful  ground." 

This,  again,  is  by  Anyte  : — 

"  To  shaggy  Pan,  and  to  the  Fold-nymphs  fair, 

Fast  by  the  rock  a  shepherd's  ottering  stands, 
Tlieudotus'  gift  to  those  who  gave  him  there 
Rest,  when  he  fainted  in  the  sultry  air, 

And  reached  him  sweetest  water  with  their  hands." 

This  is  by  Myro  of  Byzantium,  the  translation  by  Mr 
Burgon : — 

"  O  forest-nymphs  !  0  daughters  of  the  river, 
Who  haunt  ambrosial  these  deep  glades  for  ever 

With  rosy  feet, 

Thrice  hail  !  and  be  Cleonymus  your  care  : 
For  he,  in  this  pine-sheltered,  calm  retreat, 
To  you  erected  all  these  statues  fair." 

This  chapter  may  be  appropriately  closed  by  two 
little  poems  of  a  character  closely  resembling  pac.h 
other,  as  referring  to  places,  perhaps  towers  or  pnnli 
temples  in  the  sea  or  on  the  seaside,  dedicated  to 
Venus,  in  her  pleasing  character  as  Queen  of  the  Sea, 
and  as  protecting  sailors  by  the  soothing  or  subduing 
influence  of  her  image  on  the  surrounding  waves. 


56  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

The  first  of  these  is  by  Anyte  : — 

"  This  Venus'  favourite  haunt:  'tis  her  delight 
To  look  from  land  upon  the  ocean  bright, 
And  speed  the  sailor's  course.     The  ambient  brine 
Quails  as  it  sees  the  image  in  her  shrine." 

Of  the  other,  by  Antipater,  we  shall  give  a  transla- 
tion by  Mr  Hay  ;  but  in  which  a  slight  alteration  has 
l>een  made,  for  a  reason  that  will  be  explained.  It 
is  Venus  that  speaks  : — 

"  Simple  this  shrine,  where  by  the  dark  white  wave 
I  sit,  the  mistress  of  a  briny  shore  : 
Simple,  but  loved  ;  for  I  delight  to  save 
The  sailor,  while  I  quell  the  billows'  roar. 
Propitiate  Venus  :  I  will  prove  to  thee 
A  friend,  when  tossed  by  love  or  on  the  clear  blue  sea." 

Lessing  conjectures  that  the  abode  thus  described  may 
have  been  some  seaside  chapel  to  the  marine  Venus, 
such  as  may  have  been  in  use  at  Sestos,  where  Hero — 
Leander's  Hero — officiated  as  a  priestess  of  the  goddess. 
He  suggests  that  at  such  a  chapel  an  image  of  Venus 
may  have  been  preserved,  which  was  lifted  up  or  ex- 
posed to  view  in  a  storm  in  order  to  awe  th«i  waves 
into  a  state  of  calm.  The  idea  in  the  epigram,  there- 
fore, seems  to  lie,  that  Venus  delights,  not,  as  had 
been  supposed,  in  the  roaring  of  the  billows,  but  in 
exerting  her  power  to  make  them  cease  to  roar. 

On  the  gems  and  coins  of  Sestos  or  Abydos  which 
refer  to  the  story  of  Hero  and  Leander,  a  tower  was 
sometimes  to  be  seen,  with  Hero  holding  out  a  torch 
to  guide  her  lover  on  his  way. 


CHAPTER     TIL 

SEPULCHRAL. 

WE  proceed  now  to  that  class  of  inscriptions  which 
may  be  called  Sepulchral,  and  which  are  of  universal 
use  among  nations.  Wordsworth,  in  his  "  Essay  on 
Epitaphs,"  is  anxious  to  prove  the  proposition  of 
Weever  in  his  '  Funeral  Monuments,'  that  the  in- 
vention of  such  inscriptions  proceeded  from  the  pre- 
sage or  anticipation  of  immortality  implanted  in  all 
men  naturally.  He  himself  says,  that  "  without  the 
consciousness  of  immortality  in  the  human  soul,  man 
could  never  have  had  awakened  in  him  the  desire  to 
live  in  the  remembrance  of  his  fellows ;  mere  love,  or 
the  yearning  of  kind  towards  kind,  could  not  have 
produced  it."  There  is  much  to  support  the  views 
which  Wordsworth  urges  on  this  subject.  Many 
national  customs  have  been  manifestly  formed  on  this 
basis  ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  without  the 
conviction  that  our  nature  possesses  an  imperishable 
part,  our  dispositions,  affections,  and  aspirations  would 
be  lamentably  changed  for  the  worse,  and  the  best 
light  of  our  existence  extinguished.  But  it  does  not 
seein  to  be  certain  either  that  a  desire  of  posthumous 


58  TUE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

reputation  could  not  exist,  or  that  a  regard  and  respect 
for  the  memory  and  remains  of  those  we  loved  when 
in  life,  could  not  be  cherished  and  expressed,  without 
the  presage  of  immortality.  Even  those  heathens,  if 
such  there  be,  who  are  without  such  a  blessed  antici- 
pation, may  yet  look  back  with  tender  regret  on  the 
vanished  happiness  which  they  enjoyed  with  a  be- 
loved object ;  and  the  feeling  of  reverence  which  was 
directed  to  the  living  friend  or  parent  may  naturally 
extend  to  the  lifeless  body  that  was  recently  so  dear 
to  us.  The  sentiment,  "how  much  less  precious  it  is 
to  associate  with  survivors  than  to  remember  the 
departed,"  does  not  seem  to  be  indissolubly  connected 
with  any  creed  as  to  a  future  life ;  and  the  desire  to 
defend  from  injury  the  bodies  of  friends  is  intelligible 
on  other  principles.  Gray,  in  his  "  Elegy,"  ascribes  the 
use  of  monumental  erections  and  their  inscriptions  to 
a  lower  range  of  feeling  : — 

"  Yet  even  these  bones  from  insult  to  protect, 

Some  frail  memorial  still  erected  nigh, 
With  uncouth  rhymes  and  shapeless  sculpture  decked, 
Implores  the  passing  tribute  of  a  sigh." 

It  is  perhaps  a  fault  in  the  "Elegy  in  a  Country 
Churchyard" — if  it  is  permissible  to  find  any  fault  in 
that  admirable  poem — that  it  should  throughout  exhibit 
so  little  of  an  appeal  to  religious  feelings,  or  a  direct 
reference  to  the  prospect  of  immortality.  But  it  may 
tend  to  show  that  a  solemn  and  powerful  regard 
for  the  dead  has  in  some  degree  an  independent  basis. 
It  has  been  a  subject  of  grave  doubt  to  some  minds 


SEPULCHRAL.  59 

whether  the  earlier  Jews  were  believers  in  a  future 
state,  and  were  not  rather  under  the  awe  of  a  present 
theocracy ;  and  the  Book  of  Psalms  has  been  referred 
to  as  at  once  the  most  religious  of  manuals,  and  yet 
the  one  which  has  the  least  clear  indications  of  a  life 
to  come.  It  seems  quite  intelligible  that  the  memory 
of  parents  and  other  ancestors,  who  have  been  bene- 
factors to  their  kind,  may  be  cherished,  and  memorials 
erected  to  them,  not  only  from  intrinsic  regard  and 
admiration,  but  also  from  a  desire  to  stimulate  their 
successors  to  imitate  their  virtues  and  equal  their 
glory.  The  strong  desire  for  posthumous  fame  shown 
by  the  ancient  poets  seems  not  wholly,  and  perhaps 
very  partially,  to  arise  from  a  religious  feeling. 

Greek  epitaphs  have  a  great  diversity  of  charactex 
in  this  respect.  Some  of  them  make  no  allusion  to  a 
future  state ;  and  the  absence  of  this  hope  seems  only 
to  make  the  feeling  of  bereavement  more  deep,  and  the 
recollection  of  what  is  lost  more  tender.  Even  those 
are,  as  Christopher  North  has  said,  "beautiful  ex- 
ceedingly ;  and  in  us,  to  whom  life  and  immortality 
have  been  brought  to  light,  they  inspire  a  strange 
feeling  of  sympathy  for  such  sadness,  and  of  humble 
gratitude  for  our  better  lot.  Heart-broken,  hopeless 
sighs  over  the  grave  from  which  there  might  be  no 
blessed  resurrection  !  A  lament  as  of  the  passing  wind 
over  the  monumental  stone !  No  bright  gleam  from 
above,  as  with  us,  cheering  the  gloom  below  !  On 
the  tombstone  of  the  Christian  maiden  no  words  are 
graved  utterly  forlorn — much  grief  but  no  despair — 
being  dead  she  yet  speaketh — and  the  inscription  is 


60  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

as  a  blessing  on  the  survivors,  -who  are  bade  weep  no 
more  for  the  happy." 

We  subjoin  a  few  of  the  Greek  epitaphs,  beginning 
with  two  ascribed  to  Erinna,  who  is  said,  though  with- 
out conclusive  evidence,  to  have  been  a  contemporary 
of  Sappho.  They  are  both  upon  a  maiden  friend  of 
Erinna's,  whose  name  was  Baucis ;  but  this  appel- 
lation having  unfortunately  been  appropriated  by  a 
respectable  female  of  another  character,  our  trans- 
lators have  substituted  respectively  Myrtis  and  Ida. 
This  translation  is  by  Elton : — 


"  The  virgin  Myrtis'  sepulchre  am  I : 
Creep  softly  to  the  pillared  mount  of  woe, 
And  whisper  to  the  grave,  in  earth  below, 
'  Grave  !  thou  art  envious  in  thy  cruelty  ! ' 
To  thee  now  gazing  here,  her  barbarous  fate 
These  bride's  adornments  tell ; — that  with  the  fire 
Of  Hymen's  torch  which  led  her  to  the  gate, 
Her  husband  burned  the  maid  upon  her  pyre. 
Yes,  Hymen  !  thou  didst  change  the  marriage-song 
To  the  shrill  wailing  of  the  mourners'  throng." 

Merivalehas  another  version,  of  which  the  last  part  is 
so  good  as  to  deserve  being  also  inserted  : — 

"  The  very  torch  that  laughing:  Hymen  bore 
To  light  the  virgin  to  the  bridegroom's  door, 
With  that  same  torch  the  bridegroom  lights  the  fire 
That  dimly  glimmers  on  her  funeral  pyre. 
Thou,  too,  0  Hymen  !  bid'st  the  nuptial  lay 
In  elegiac  moanings  die  away." 


SEPULCHRAL.  61 


XL 

"  Pillars  of  death  !  carved  syrens  !  tearful  urn  ! 

In  whose  sad  keeping  my  poor  dust  is  laid, 
To  those  who  near  my  tomb  their  footsteps  turn, 

Stranger  or  Greek,  bid  hail  !  and  say,  a  maid 
Rests  in  her  bloom  below  ;  her  sire  the  name 

Of  Myrtis  gave  ;  her  birth  and  lineage  high : 
And  say  her  bosom-friend  Erinna  came, 

And  on  this  marble  graved  her  elegy." 

Here  is  a  similar  one  by  Melcager  himself,  translated 
by  \Vrnngliam  : — 

"  Her  virgin  zone  unloosed,  Clesera's  charms 
Death  clasps — stern  bridegroom — in  his  iron  arms. 
Hymns  at  the  bridal  valves  last  night  were  sung — 
Last  night  the  bridal  roof  with  revels  rung — 
This  morn  the  wail  was  raised,  and,  hushed  and  low, 
The  strains  of  joy  were  changed  to  moans  of  woe  ; 
And  the  bright  torch  to  Hymen's  hall  which  led, 
With  mournful  glare  now  lighted  to  the  dead." 

The  following  is  said  to  be  by  Sappho.     The  transla- 
tion is  by  Elton,  a  little  altered  : — 

"  This  dust  was  Timas' :  ere  her  bridal  bed 
Within  Persephone's  dark  bower  received, 
With  new-sharped  steel  her  playmates  from  each  head 
Cut  their  fair  locks,  to  show  how  much  they  grieved." 

This  also  is  said  to  be  Sappho's,  translated  by  Charli  s 
Merivale  : — 

"  Deep  in  the  cirri ry  chambers  of  the  dead, 
Asteria's  ghost  has  made  her  bridal  bed.    ' 
Still  to  this  stone  her  fond  compeers  may  turn, 
And  shed  their  cherished  tresses  on  her  urn." 


62  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

But  notwithstanding  this  prevailing  gloom,  there  are, 
a?  Mr  Merivale  has  said,  "a  few  which  present  us 
with  brighter  prospects,  and  bring  us  nearer  to  the 
Elysium  described  by  the  more  cheerful  poets  of  Italy." 
One  of  the  most  gladsome  of  these  is  an  epitaph  upon 
"  Prote,"  a  name  which  means  First,  and  indicates  pro 
bably  a  first-born  daughter.  It  is  not  in  the  regulai 
Anthologies,  but  is  a  Greek  inscription  on  a  marble  at 
Rome  belonging  to  a  Roman  family  of  Pagan  times. 
We  give  a  version  by  Hay,  altering  merely  one  lino 
and  a  word  to  come  nearer  to  the  original : — 

"  Prote,  thou  art  not  dead  ;  but  thou  hast  passed 
To  better  lands,  where  pleasures  ever  last — 
To  bound  in  joy  amidst  the  fairest  flowers 
Of  the  blest  isles,  Elysium's  blooming  bowers. 
Thee  nor  the  summer's  heat  nor  winter's  chill 
Shall  e'er  annoy — exempt  from  every  ill  : 
Nor  sickness,  hunger,  thirst  again  distress  ; 
Nor  dost  thou  long  for  earthly  happiness. 
Contented  ihou,  remote  from  human  woes, 
In  the  pure  light  which  from  Olympus  flows." 

In  seeking  to  illustrate  these  diversified  aspects  of 
the  Greek  sepulchral  inscriptions  in  reference  to  the 
presence  or  absence  of  the  hope  of  a  future  life,  we 
have  passed  over  some  of  the  very  simplest  of  these 
epitaphs,  which  deserve  attention.  It  may  be  inter- 
esting to  follow  them  through  the  dill'erent  periods 
of  life,  though  a  good  many  specimens  of  epitaphs  on 
young  women  have  already  been  given. 

The  following  epitaph  by  Callimachus  (B.C.  250)  is 
an  example  of  the  severe  simplicity  and  directness 


SEPULCHRAL.  63 

which  the  Greeks  here  aimed  at.  Everything  essen- 
tial is  contained  in  it — the  names  of  the  persons, 
their  mutual  relations,  the  age  of  the  buried  buy,  and 
the  great  hopes  which  he  had  held  out  to  his  father. 
There  is  no  expression  of  grief,  no  effort  at  ornament, 
no  expansion  of  any  idea  such  as  modern  taste  would 
suggest  to  a  poet ;  the  situation  speaks  for  itself,  and 
the  very  reticence  of  the  bereaved  parent  gives  to  his 
sorrow  a  more  solemn  and  sacred  aspect. 

The  two  versions  we  give  are  nearly  literal : — 

"  His  .son,  now  twelve  years  old,  Philippus  sees 
Here  laid,  his  mighty  hope,  Nicoteles." 

"  His  little  son  of  twelve  years  old  Philippus  here  has 

laid, 

Nicoteles,  on  whom  so  much   his  father's  hopes  were 
stayed." 

Here  is  another  epitaph  by  Lucian  on  a  still  younger 
child,  where  the  parents  do  not  appear,  and  the  child 
speaks  somewhat  philosophically  in  its  own  person  : — 

"  A  boy  of  five  years  old,  serene  and  gay, 
Unpitying  Hades  hurried  me  away. 
Yet  weep  not  for  Callimachna  ;  if  few 
The  days  I  lived,  few  were  my  sorrows  too." 

We  next  give  an  epitaph  on  a  young  maiden,  cut  off 
in  the  prime  of  youth  anil  beauty,  while  the  "cynosure 
of  neighbouring  eyes."  It  is  the  composition  of  Anyte, 
a  Tegean  poetess,  belonging  apparently  to  the  third 
century  before  our  era,  whose  epigrams,  twenty-two 
in  number,  possess  great  delicacy  and  tenderness  of 
style,  and  procured  for  her  the  emblem  of  the  "  white 
lily,"  assigned  to  her  by  Meleager  : — 


<}4  THK   GRKEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

rt I  mourn  the  maid  Antibia,  for  whose  love 

Full  many  a  suitor  sought  her  father's  hall, — 
Her  beauty  and  her  wit  so  much  could  move  ; 
But  deadly  Fate  o'erturned  the  hopes  of  alL" 

Here  is  another  version  by  Mr  Keen  : — 

'  Drop  o'er  Antibia's  grave  a  pious  tear, 
For  virtue,  beauty,  wit,  lie  buried  here. 
Full  many  a  suitor  sought  her  father's  hall, 
To  gain  the  virgin's  love  ;  but  death  o'er  all 
Claimed  dire  precedence — who  shall  deatli  withstand? — 
Their  hopes  were  blasted  by  his  ruthless  hand." 

This  is  sweet  and  elegant,  but  not  sufficiently  simple 
or  short.  We  add  one  by  Mr  Hay,  which  Christopher 
North  declared  that  he  considered  perfect : — 

"  The  maid  Antibia  I  lament  ;  for  whom 

Full  many  a  suitor  sought  her  father's  hall : 

For  beauty,  prudence,  famed  was  she  ;  but  doom 

Destructive  overwhelmed  the  hopes  of  all." 

We  now  give  another  epitaph  by  Callimachus, 
simple  and  short,  as  his  com  positions  generally  are,  but 
containing  a  lofty  thought,  always  a  favourite  among 
the  ancients  as  among  ourselves  : — 

"  Here  Dicon's  son,  Acanthian  Saou  lies 
In  sacred  sleep  :  say  not  a  good  man  dies." 

The  same  idea,  almost  identically  expressed,  is  con- 
tained in  another,  and  apparently  a  later  epitaph,  by 
an  unknown  author  : — 

"  This  is  Popilia's  tomb  :  my  husband's  care 
Framed  it,— Oceanus,  of  wisdom  rare. 
Here  rest  my  ashes  ;  but  the  Shades  below 
Hearing  my  hymns,  thy  goodness,  friend,  shall  know. 


SEPULCHRAL.  65 

Think  of  me  ever,  husband,  and  while  here 
Drop,  on  the  tomb  I  fill,  the  frequent  tear. 
And  say,  Popilia  slumbers  :  never  think 
That  the  good  die:  to  happy  sleep  they  sink." 

It  is  a  natural  and  precious  belief,  as  to  all  the 
departed  whom  we  value, — 

"  How  sleep  the  Brave,  who  sink  to  rest 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest !" 

Callimachus  led  us  into  this  train  of  thought,  and 
we  shall  follow  it  up  by  another  epitaph  of  his  upon 
a  friend,  written  in  his  best  stylo,  much  admired  and 
often  translated.  As  it  is  a  model  of  its  kind,  we  shall 
give  three  translations, — the  first  by  a  distinguished 
and  lamented  scholar,  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge ;  the 
second  by  Mr  Hay ;  and  a  third  which  we  add  with 
dillidence,  as  bringing  out  one  or  two  points  in  the 
original  which  in  the  others  seem  a  little  lost  sight 
of:— 

"  They  told  me,  Heraclitus,  thou  wert  dead, 
And  then  I  thought,  and  tears  thereon  did  shed, 
How  oft  we  two  talked  down  the  sun  ;  but  thou 
llalieaniassean  guest  !  art  ashes  now. 
Yet  live  thy  nightingales  of  song  :  on  those 
Forgetfulness  her  hand  shall  ne'er  impose." 

"  I  wept,  my  Heraclitus,  when  they  told 
That  thou  wert  deul  ;  1  thought  of  days  of  old, — 
How  oft  in  talk  we  sent  the  sun  to  rest  : 
Long  since  hast  thou,  my  Halicarnassian  guest, 
Been  dust  :  yet  live  thy  nightingales — on  these 
The  all-plundering  hand  of  death  shall  never  seize." 

A.  C.  Vol.  XX.  B 


66  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  One  told  me,  Heraclitus,  of  thy  fate, 
Which  brought  the  tear  into  my  eye  to  think 
How  oft  we  two,  conversing  long  and  late, 
Have  seen  the  sun  into  his  chamber  sink  ; 
But  that  is  past  and  gone,  and  somewhere  thow. 
Halicarnassian  guest  !  art  ashes  now. 
Yet  live  those  nightingales  of  thine  ;  on  these 
The  all-grasping  hand  of  Hades  will  not  seize." 

Here  is  another  epitaph  by  a  friend  upon  a  friend, 
by  an  unknown  author,  but  simple  and  beautiful  as 
Callimachus  himself  might  have  written  : — 

"  A  record,  good  Sabinus,  though  unfit, 

This  little  stone  of  our  great  love  shall  be  : 
I  still  shall  miss  thee  :  thou,  if  law  permit, 
Abstain  from  Lethe's  wave  for  love  of  me." 

The  concluding  idea  in  these  lines  has  been  copied  in 
an  epitaph  in  the  Latin  Anthology  on  a  predeceasing 
wife,  who  is  thus  addressed  by  her  husband  : — 

"  But  thou  of  touching  Lethe's  stream  beware, 
Certain  that  soon  thy  husband  will  be  there." 

Friendship,  so  touchingly  illustrated  by  the  epitaphs 
immediately  above  quoted,  seems,  we  think,  to  have 
played  a  more  important  or  more  conspicuous  part  in 
Greek  manners  and  social  history  than  it  does  among 
ourselves.  It  was  necessarily  so,  indeed,  considering 
the  different  character  of  domestic  life  in  the  two 
forms  of  national  habits.  It  has  sometimes  been  said 
that  in  our  own  country  and  age  a  man's  best  friend 
is  generally  to  be  found  in  his  wife ;  and  the  identity 
of  their  interests,  the  equality  of  their  position,  and 


SEPULCHRAL.  67 

the  correspondence  between  their  attainments  and  in- 
telligence, greatly  conduce  to  this  result,  which  is  at 
the  same  time  promoted  by  the  very  differences  that 
exist  in  their  tastes  and  faculties,  and  that  give  a 
peculiar  softness  and  tenderness  to  their  attachment. 

Friendship,  with  us,  is  more  peculiarly  the  virtue  of 
youth  ;  and  no  greater  blessing  can  befall  a  young  man 
than  the  friendship  of  one  not  much  exceeding  his 
own  years,  and  from  whom  he  may  derive  living 
lessons  in  the  pursuit  of  learning  and  the  practice  of 
high  principle.  The  influence  of  such  a  friend  is 
all  the  more  powerful  because  it  is  more  persuasive 
and  less  dictatorial  than  the  teaching  of  a  guardian  or 
other  preceptor  of  more  advanced  age  and  of  less  con- 
genial feelings. 

The  delightful  glimpse  that  the  epitaph  on  Heracli- 
tus  gives  us  of  two  friends  conversing  till  they  talked 
the  sun  down,  reminds  one  of  a  still  nobler  picture  in 
Cowley's  admirable  "  Elegy  on  the  Death  of  William 
Ilervey  :  " — 

"  Say,  for  you  saw  us,  ye  immortal  lights, 
How  oft  unwearyYl  have  we  spent  the  nights, 
Till  the  Ledtran  stars,  so  famed  for  love, 

Wondered  at  us  from  above  ? 
We  spent  them  not  in  toys,  or  lust,  or  wine, 

But  search  of  deep  philosophy, 

Wit,  eloquence,  and  poetry, 
Arts  which  I  loved,  for  they,  my  friend,  were  thine." 

We  think  we  do  our  readers  a  great  service  by 
referring  them  here,  if  they  do  not  already  know  it, 
to  a  very  pleasing  poem  by  Principal  Shairp  in  '  Mac- 


68  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

millan's  Magazine'  for  March  1873,  containing  his 
touching  reminiscences  of  the  band  of  distinguished 
friends  among  whom  his  college  days  at  Oxford  had 
been  passed. 

We  proceed  to  give  some  miscellaneous  epitaphs  on 
persons  of  both  sexes  dying  in  early  life,  or  at  least 
before  old  age. 

This,  by  Hegesippus,  is  on  a  good  man,  and  is  inter- 
esting as  referring  to  the  two  diverging  roads  in  the 
Unseen  Regions,  mentioned  also  by  Virgil,  of  which 
the  one  on  the  right  leads  to  Elysium,  and  the  other 
to  Tartarus : — 

"  Hermes  leads  good  men  from  the  pyre,  they  say, 
To  Rhadamanthus,  by  the  right-hand  way; 
Which  Aristonous,  not  unwept,  has  trod 
To  all-compelling  Pluto's  wide  abode." 

This  is  on  a  young  maiden  named  Macedonia,  cut  off 
before  her  prime,  but  described  as  having  a  marked 
superiority  of  character.  It  is  by  Paul  the  Silen- 
tiary : — 

"  Thy  bier,  and  not  thy  bridal  bed,  sweet  maid, 
With  grieving  hands  thy  parents  have  arrayed. 
Thou  from  life's  troubles  and  from  childbirth's  pains 
Escap'st ;  for  them  a  cloud  of  woes  remains. 
Fate,  at  thy  twelfth  year,  wrapped  thee  in  the  mould — 
In  beauty,  young  ;  in  moral  merits,  old." 

Our  next  bears  the  name  of  Xenocritus,  and  laments 
the  death  at  sea  of  a  maiden  who  was  repairing  under 
her  father's  charge  to  her  betrothed.  The  translation 
u  partly  borrowed  from  one  by  Mr  Hay : — 


SEPULCHRAL.  69 

"  Shipwrecked  Lysidice,  thon  hapless  fair, 
Lost  in  the  sea,  the  brine  bedews  thy  hair. 
Ocean  was  stirred ;  and  viewing  the  wild  tide, 
Thou  fell'st,  in  terror,  from  the  vessel's  side. 
Thine  and  thy  native  Ciuna's  name  are  read 
On  this  void  tomb,  to  tell  that  thou  art  dead. 
Thy  bones  are  somewhere  washed  in  the  cold  deep  ; 
And  Aristomachus,  thy  sire,  must  weep 
That,  journeying  with  thee  for  thy  marriage-day, 
Nor  bride,  nor  even  her  corse,  he  could  convey." 

We  are  afraid  that  the  subject  of  the  following  lines 
had  not  possessed  the  "  moral  merits  "  ascribed  to  one 
young  person  already  mentioned.  It  seems  pretty 
clear  from  her  companionable  qualities  that  Patrophile 
was  not  a  Greek  citizen  ;  Taut  her  early  death  might  be 
sad  enough  for  all  that,  and  a  deep  affliction  to  some 
one.  The  translation  is  based  on  one  by  Mr  Hay  : — 

"  In  the  full  ripeness  of  thy  beauty's  prime, 

Thine  eyelids  now,  Patrophile,  are  sealed : 
Mute  is  that  tongue  that  so  beguiled  the  time  ; 

Quenched  are  the  wiles  thy  words  and  looks  revealed. 
The  voice  of  harp  and  song — where,  where  are  these  ? 

The  kisses,  too,  that  blest  the  circling  bowl  ? 
Why,  Pluto,  thus  our  loved  companion  seize  ? 

Had  Venus  maddened  even  thy  gloomy  soul  ? " 

Commentators  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  relation  in 
which  Meleager  stood  to  some  of  the  females  to  whom 
his  verses  were  addressed,  and  in  particular  to  Helio- 
dora,  who  is  the  subject  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  passionate  laments  that  affection  has  ever  prompted. 
We  will  believe  that  she  was  his  wife,  though  some 
think  she  was  his  mistress,  and  high  authorities  infer 


70  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

from  certain  expressions  used  that  she  was  his  daugh- 
ter. It  has  often  been  translated.  The  version  we 
give  is  the  joint  production  of  Mr  Hay  and  Christo- 
pher North.  Several  others  of  much  merit  will  be 
found  collected  in  '  Blackwood,'  voL  xxxiv.  p.  127; 
but  rt  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  them. 

"  Tears,  Heliodora  !  tears  for  thee,  companion  of  the  dead, 
Last  yearnings  of  thy  husband's  love,  to  Hades  now  I  shed  ; 
Tears  from  a  heart  by  anguish  wrung  for  her  whom  I 

deplore — 

Memorials  of  regretful  love  upon  her  tomb  I  pour. 
For  thee,  belov'd,  even  with  the  dead,  thy  Meleager  sighs, 
Now  parting  with  a  precious  gift  which  Acheron  will  not 

prize. 
Where  my  desired  blossom  now  ?  its  bloom  hath  Hades 

spoiled, 
And  my  consummate  flower,  alas  !    the  cruel  dust  hath 

soiled. 
Thou  all-sustaining  Mother,  Earth !  oh,  clasp  her  to  thy 

breast, 
My  evermore  lamented  one, — and  softly  let  her  rest ! " 

This  next  epitaph  has  a  dramatic  character  about  it 
whi^h  deserves  notice.  It  is  by  Leonidas  of  Taren- 
turo  • — 

"  Who,  and  whose  child  art  thou,  who  here  dost  lie 

Under  this  marble  ? "     "  Prexo  named  am  I, 

The  daughter  of  Calliteles."     "  Where,  born  ? " 

"  In  Samoa."     "  O'er  thy  tomb,  say,  who  did  mourn  ? " 

"  Theocritus,  the  spouse  my  parents  chose." 

"  What  caused  thy  death  1 "     "  Childbirth  my  days  did 

close." 

"How  old?"  "Just  twenty-two."  «  No  child  didst  leave;?" 
"  Calliteles  but  three  years  old  must  grieve." 


SEPULCHRAL.  71 

"  Blessings  and  length  of  days  be  on  the  boy." 

"  Thanks,  friend,  and  fortune's  smiles  inayst  th'ou  enjoy." 

Here  is  another  dialogue  by  Julian  in  a  different 
style,  the  translation  by  Gold  win  Smith  : — 

"  Cruel  is  Death."    "  Nay,  kind.     He  that  is  ta'en 
Was  old  in  wisdom,  though  his  years  were  few." 
"  Life's  pleasure  hath  he  lost."    "  Escaped  life's  pain  : " 
"  Nor  wedded  joys," — "  nor  wedded  sorrows,  knew." 

Here  is  a  sweet  epitaph  by  a  husband  who  has  sus- 
tained the  double  loss  of  a  wife  and  child,  by  Bianor, 
the  translation  also  by  Goldwin  Smith,  slightly  al- 
tered : — 

"  I  wept  Theonoe's  loss  ;  but  one  fair  child 
Its  father's  heart  of  half  its  woe  beguiled  : 
And  now,  sole  source  of  hope  and  solace  left, 
That  one  fair  child  the  envious  Fates  have  reft. 
Hear,  Proserpine,  my  prayer,  and  lay  to  rest 
My  little  babe  on  its  lost  mother's  breast" 

Take  some  specimens  now  relating  to  men  older  in 
years,  who  had  run  their  career  and  accomplished  their 
objects  in  life.  This  one  is  anonymous,  the  transla- 
tion by  Hodgson  and  Bland.  It  gives  a  pleasant 
picture  of  a  useful  country  gentleman  : — 

"  Take  old  Amyntor  to  thy  heart,  dear  soil, 
In  kind  remembrance  of  his  former  toil ; 
Who  first  enriched  and  ornamented  thee 
With  many  a  lovely  shrub  and  branching  tree, 
And  lured  a  stream  to  fall  in  artful  showers 
Upon  thy  thirsting  herbs  and  fainting  flowers. 
First  in  the  spring  he  knew  the  rose  to  rear  ; 
First  in  the  autumn  culled  the  ripened  pear  ; 


72  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

His  vines  were  envied  all  the  country  round, 
And  favouring  heaven  showered  plenty  on  his  ground ; 
Therefore,  kind  Earth,  reward  him  in  thy  breast 
With  a  green  covering  and  an  easy  rest." 

We  shall  now  insert  some  examples  of  epitaphs  on 
fishermen  and  mariners,  who  formed  so  numerous  a 
class  in  the  essentially  maritime  country  of  Greece. 
This  is  ascribed  to  Sappho  : — • 

"  Here,  where  the  fisher  Pelagon  is  laid, 
His  sire  Meniscos  has  this  offering  made  : 
A  wicker  net  and  oar,  that  well  may  show 
The  life  that  fishers  lead  of  toil  and  woe." 

Sappho's  epigram  is  only  a  couplet,  and  it  is  not  easy 
to  imitate  the  simplicity  and  condensation  of  the  ori- 
ginal ;  but  this  is  an  attempt : — 

"  Here  to  the  fisher  Pelagon,  his  sire  Meniscos  laid 

A  wicker-net  and  oar,  to  show  his  weary  life  and  trade." 

The  next  is  by  Addceus,  on  a  fisherman  whose  boat 
was  put  to  three  various  uses  : — 

"  The  fisher  Diotimus  long  a  trusty  boat  had  rowed, 

Which  also  furnished  on  dry  land  a  poor  but  fit  abode. 

When  thrown  into  his  last  long  sleep,  his  dreary  way  he 
made 

To  Hades  without  further  help,  by  that  same  boat  con- 
veyed : 

For  that  which  had  sustained  his  life  the  old  man  kept 
entire, 

And  dying  found  it  useful  still  to  form  his  funeral  pyre." 

This  epitaph  on  a  seaman's  tomb  is  ascribed  to 
Plato  :— 


SEPULCHRAL.  73 

"  I  am  a  shipwrecked  sailor's  tomb  :  a  peasant's  there  doth 

stand : 
Thus  the  same  world  of  Hades  lies  beneath  both  sea  and 

land." 

There  are  many  more  of  the  same  class.  This  is  by 
Poseidippus.  The  translation  is  nearly  as  given  in 
Merivale's  book,  with  the  initials  A.  F.  M.  : — 

"  Oh,  why,  my  brother -mariners,  so  near  the  boisterous 

wave 

Of  ocean  have  ye  hollowed  out  my  solitary  grave  ? 
'Twere  better  much  that  farther  off  a  sailor's  tomb  should 

be, 

For  I  dread  my  rude  destroyer — I  dread  the  roaring  sea : 
But  may  the  smiles  of  fortune,  and  may  love  and  peace 

await 
All  you  who  shed  a  pitying  tear  for  poor  Nicetas'  fate." 

On  a  shipwrecked  person, — the  translation  by  Mr 
Hodgson : — 

"  Perish  the  hour,  that  dark  and  starless  hour — 
IVii-h  the  roaring  main's  tempestuous  power, 
That  whelmed  the  ship  where  loved  Abdera's  son 
Prayed  to  unheeding  Heaven,  and  was  undone. 
Yes — all  were  wrecked  :  and  by  the  stormy  wave 
To  rough  Seriphus  borne  he  found  a  grave — 
Found  from  kind  stranger  hands  funereal  fires, 
Yet  reached,  inurned,  the  country  of  liis  sires." 

Here  is  another  of  the  same  class,  ascribed  to  Plato, 
but  on  doubtful  evidence  : — 

"  Ye  murimTs,  by  sea  and  land  be  yours  a  happy  doom  ; 
But  know,  you  now  are  sidling  past  a  shipwrecked  sea- 
man's tomb." 


74  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

This  is  by  Leonidas  : — 

"  Fearless  embark  from  the  wrecked  seaman's  tomb : 
Others  sailed  safely  when  I  met  my  doom." 

This  is  by  Callimachus,  and  exhibits  his  usual  elegance. 
The  translation  is  taken  from  Mr  Symonds's  book  on 
the  Greek  Poets  : — 

"  Would  that  swift  ships  had  never  been  ;  for  so 

We  ne'er  had  wept  for  Sopolis  :  but  he 
Dead  on  the  waves  now  drifts  ;  while  we  must  go 
Past  a  void  tomb,  a  mere  name's  mockery." 

There  are  one  or  two  epitaphs  upon  slaves  which  are 
interesting,  particularly  as  showing  that  the  relation 
between  a  good  master  or  mistress  and  a  slave  or 
perpetual  bondsman  was  often  friendly,  and  even  affec- 
tionate. This  is  by  Dioscorides  : — 

"  A  slave,  a  Lydian,  yet  my  master  gave 
To  me,  who  fostered  him,  a  freeman's  grave : 
Master,  live  long  ;  and  when  on  life's  decline 
You  come  to  Hades,  there  I'll  still  be  thine." 

This,  by  an  anonymous  author,  in  the  same  strain,  is 
touching : — 

"  Master,  to  thee  still  faithful  I  remain 
In  death,  and  still  my  grateful  thoughts  retain  ; 
How,  rescued  thrice  from  fell  disease  by  thee, 
I  fill  this  cell,  where  passers-by  may  see 
Manes  the  Persian's  tomb  :  for  such  good  deed 
Service  more  true  from  all  will  be  thy  meed." 

The  next  that  we  give  is  put  into  the  mouth  of 
another  dying  slave,  also  a  Persian,  bearing  the  name 


SEPULCHRAL.  75 

of  a  great  river,  and  who  deprecates  any  funerai  rites 
that  would  be  at  variance  with  his  creed : — 

"  Burn  not  Euphrates,  master  ;  let  not  Fire 
Be  here  polluted  for  my  funeral  pyre. 
A  Persian  born,  of  Persia's  genuine  race, 
Fire  to  profane,  to  me  were  dire  disgrace. 
Lay  me  in  earth  ;  nor  even  bring  water  here 
To  wash  me, — Rivers  also  I  revere." 

Manes,  a  name  already  mentioned,  was  commonly 
borne  by  slaves,  and  occurs  in  the  following  epigram 
by  Anyt6  : — 

"  Manes,  when  living,  was  a  slave  :  dead  now, 
Great  King  Darius,  he's  as  great  as  thou." 

This,  on  a  female  slave  of  high  character,  by  Damas- 
kios,  will  best  bear  translation  in  hexameters.  It  is 
not  clear  whether  she  had  been  manumitted  during 
her  lifetime : — 

"  Zosima,  who  when  alive  was  only  a  slave  in  the  body, 
Now,  in  the  body  as  well,  freedom  at  last  has  obtained." 

This  chapter  may  be  concluded  by  a  few  special 
epitaphs,  real  or  supposed,  upon  persons  of  distinction. 
Of  these  perhaps  the  most  celebrated,  and  certainly 
one  of  the  best,  is  by  Simonides,  on  Archcdico,  the 
daughter  of  the  Athenian  tyrant  Hippias,  and  wife  of 
a  tyrant's  son  at  Lampsacus,  where  a  monument  was 
erected  to  her  memory,  on  which  the  epitaph  in 
question  was  actually  inscribed  : — 

u  Of  One  who,  high  in  Greece  precedence  held, 
Hippias,  who  all  men  of  his  day  excelled, 


76  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Archedice  the  daughter  here  doth  rest  : 
Her  father,  brothers,  husband,  sons,  possessed 
A  princely  rank  ;  but  in  her  gentle  mind 
None  could  a  trace  of  arrogance  e'er  find." 


Aristotle,  who  admired  the  genius  and  taste  of  Simon- 
ides,  particularly  refers  to  this  epitaph  as  a  specimen 
of  judicious  praise,  the  person  mentioned  being  char- 
acterised as  possessing  that  virtue  which  it  was  most 
difficult  to  practise  in  the  position  held  by  her.  He 
gives  as  cases  deserving  of  special  eulogium  when  a 
prosperous  person  is  moderate,  or  an  unfortunate  one 
magnanimous. 

The  next  that  we  shall  give  is  by  Antipater  of 
Sidon,  upon  Aristomenes,  a  Messenian  prince,  the 
determined  enemy  of  Sparta,  whose  life,  though  un- 
doubtedly historical,  was  adorned  by  exaggerations 
or  additions  of  almost  a  legendary  character.  His 
chief  qualities  seem  to  have  been  patriotism,  cour- 
age, and  perseverance  under  difficulties,  tempered 
with  gentleness  and  tenderness  of  heart.  A  singular 
story  is  told  of  him, — that  a  Ehodian  king,  when 
consulting  the  Delphic  oracle,  was  enjoined  to  marry 
the  daughter  of  "the  best  of  the  Greeks."  This  he 
considered  10  be  no  other  than  Aristomenes,  wno 
thereafter  found  in  Ehodes  a  peaceful  refuge  with  his 
son-in-law.  The  epitaph  which  follows  introduces 
upon  the  scene  an  eagle,  by  which  bird  his  life  had 
previously  been  saved  when  precipitated  down  a  pit 
by  the  Spartans.  The  translation  is  by  Leyden,  and 
is  very  spirited  : — 


SEPULCHRAL.  77 

ON  AN  EAGLE  PERCHED  ON  THE  TOMBSTONE  OF 
ARISTOMENES. 

"  Majestic  Bird  !  so  proud  and  fierce, 

Why  tower' st  tliou  o'er  that  warrior's  hearse  1 " 
"  I  tell  each  god-like  earthly  king, 

Fur  as  o'er  birds  of  every  wing 

Supreme  the  lordly  eagle  sails, 

Great  Aristomenes  prevails. 

Let  timid  doves,  with  plaintive  cry, 

Coo  o'er  the  graves  where  cowards  lie  : 

'Tis  o'er  the  dauntless  hero's  breast 

The  kingly  eagle  loves  to  rest." 

The  advance  and  ultimate  predominance  of  the 
Macedonian  power  over  Greece  proper,  formed  a  tempt- 
ing occasion  to  time-servers  for  flattering  the  con- 
querors. Some  mortuary  epigrams  hero  occur  as 
marking  that  era.  The  lirst  we  give  is  upon  Philip 
of  Mucedon,  by  Addoeus  : — 

"  I,  Philip,  who  first  raised  the  Ematlrian  name 
By  warlike  deeds  beyond  all  former  fame, 
Lie  here  at  yEgaj  :  it'  you  e'er  shall  see 
One  greater, — from  my  lineage  it  must  be." 

A:^x.  was  the  place  where  the  sepulchre  of  the  Mace- 
donian kings  was  situated.  The  allusion  in  the  end 
is  of  course  to  Alexander  the  Great.  Addoeus  was 
probably  a  Macedonian. 

Connected  with  Philip's  name  is  a  very  ungenerous 
epigram  by  Geminus,  in  honour  of  the  Macedonian 
victories  over  the  Athenians,  and  supposed  to  be 
inscribed  upon  a  trophy  : — 


:i 


78  THE  GREEK  ANTUOLOOY, 

"  This  stone  to  Liars  must  grief  to  Athens  bring, 
Telling  the  might  of  Macedonia's  kin<: 
The  deeds  of  Marathon  are  now  disgraced, 
The  victories  of  Salamis  effaced, 
Before  the  points  of  Philip's  spears  abased. 
Invoke  the  dead,  Demosthenes  ;  in  vain  ! 
To  taunt  both  quick  and  dead  I  here  remain." 

In  one  of  his  greatest  speeches,  .Demosthenes  had 
taken  those  who  died  at  Marathon,  and  in  other  ancient 
battles,  to  witness  that  the  resistance  of  the  Athenians 
to  Philip  was  laudable. 

Here  is  a  short  complimentary  epigram  on  Alex- 
ander's death,  also  by  Addosus  : — 

"  Macetan  Alexander's  tomb,  if  called  on  to  disclose, 

Say  that  the  world's  two  continents  his'monument  compose." 

Macedonian  is  the  word  in  the  Greek,  but  the  older 
adjective  Macetan  has  been  used,  as  more  manageable. 
Here  is  a  later  epigram  by  Parmenio,  alluding  to 
the  story  of  the  Pythian  oracle  having  declared  Alex- 
ander to  be  invincible  : — 

"  The  rumour's  false  that  Alexander's  dead, 
Unless  we  hold  that  Phoebus  told  a  lie  : 
'  Thou  art  invincible,'  the  Pythian  said  ; 
And  those  that  are  invincible  can't  die." 

This  is  a  tribute  by  Agathias  to  his  sister,  who  to 
other  accomplishments  added  the  rather  unusual  one 
of  a  knowledge  of  Law,  her  brother's  profession — the 
translation  somewhat  simplified  : — 

"  Bright  Beauty,  Music,  legal  Lore,  Eugenia  did  adorn : 
Venus,  the  Muse,  and  Themis  now  for  her  their  locks  have 
shorn." 


SEPULCHRAL.  79 

This  is  a  beautiful  dirge  on  some  lovely  and  beloved 
object,  said  to  be  by  Plato,  and  not  unworthy  of  his 
name : — 

"  Aster,  in  life  our  Morning  star,  a  lovely  light  you  shed ; 
And  now  you  shine  as  Hesperus,  a  star  among  the  Dead." 

We  shall  conclude  this  section,  auspiciously,  we  hope, 
by  a  remarkable  epitaph  on  a  happy  man.  The  name 
is  not  given,  but  the  critics  generally  consider  that  tho 
subject  of  it  was  a  certain  Quintus  Metellus,  mentioned 
by  some  minor  historians,  in  whose  case  all  the  ele- 
ments of  good  fortune  concurred  that  are  here  enumer- 
ated. Carphyllides  is  the  author  : — 

"  View  not  my  tomb  with  pity,  passer-by  : 
No  cause  for  tears  o'er  me,  though  doomed  to  die. 
I've  seen  my  children's  children  :  a  dear  wife, 
With  me  grown  old,  has  cheered  my  lengthened  life. 
Three  of  my  offspring,  honourably  wed, 
Have  given  me  grandsons  from  their  fruitful  bed, 
Who  in  my  lap  have  oft  been  lulled  to  sleep  ; 
For  no  disease  or  death  e'er  called  to  weep. 
These,  with  due  honours,  blameless  to  my  rest 
Have  sent  me,  in  the  region  of  the  blest." 

The  Greek  of  the  last  phrase  here  used  corresponds 
very  closely  to  Lady  Nairne's  "  Laud  of  the  leal." 


CHAPTER   IV. 

AMATORY. 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  differences  which  exist  in  char- 
acter and  manners  between  the  Greeks  and  ourselves, 
there  could  not  fail  to  be  a  great  community  of  feeling 
in  the  chief  passions  and  affections  of  human  nature. 
Both  nations  belong  to  one  great  and  elevated 
family  of  the  human  race ;  neither  of  them  can  be 
considered  as  savage  or  barbarian,  or  other  than 
highly  civilised.  Our  languages  have  a  great  mutual 
affinity;  and  in  some  respects  we  stand  aloof  from 
other  sections  of  humanity,  whose  institutions  place 
them  in  a  position  essentially  different  from  *  all 
European  races.  As  regards  the  relation  of  the  sexes, 
the  great  distinction  arising  from  the  presence  or 
absence  of  polygamy  is  of  itself  enough  to  assimilate 
together  those  nations  in  which  that  source  of  female 
degradation  does  not  exist.  Faulty  as  Greek  manners 
were,  women  were  not  treated  as  slaves  or  beasts  of 
burden.  The  Greek  matron  was  condemned  to  a 
certain  seclusion,  but  she  was  held  in  respect;  and 
in  many  cases,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  married 
life  of  the  Greeks  was  one  of  affection  and  happiness. 


AMATORY.  81 

Even  the  women  that  could  not  marry  were  not 
cruelly  treated,  and  were  not  despised,  except  at  least 
when  they  made  an  indiscriminate  traffic  of  their 
attractions. 

The  sentiment  of  love  must  turn  in  varying  degrees 
upon  two  elements  —  the  appreciation  of  personal 
beauty,  and  the  admiration  or  pleasure  excited  by 
mental  powers  of  one  kind  or  other.  To  both  of 
these  emotions  the  Greek  mind  was  keenly  alive, 
though  in  the  young  or  the  superficial  the  mental  at- 
traction which  would  exert  the  greatest  influence  would 
consist  in  the  charm  of  conversational  versatility,  or 
in  some  of  the  more  sociable  and  pleasurable  accom- 
plishments. These,  we  have  seen,  could  in  general  be 
sought  for  only  in  those  grades  of  the  female  sex  which 
held  an  inferior  status ;  but  even  with  this  class, 
amiable,  though  temporary,  attachments  might  exist 
which  would  not  be  devoid  of  true  affection.  It 
should  never  be  forgot  that  in  men  whose  minds  were 
of  a  higher  and  more  serious  order,  a  true  and  pure 
passion  might  exist  towards  superior  women,  of  which 
there  were  not  wanting  remarkable  examples.  Menage 
has  an  interesting  treatise,  dedicated  to  Madame  Da- 
cier,  on  the  Female  Philosophers  of  Greece  ;  and  many 
women  there  must  have  been  who  had  great  intellec- 
tual powers  without  being  professed  philosophers.  It 
happens,  besides,  that  our  knowledge  of  the  condition 
of  Greek  women  is  derived  in  a  great  degree  from 
Athenian  sources,  referring  thus  to  a  locality  where 
respectable  females  of  Greek  parentage  were  kept  in 
closer  seclusion  than  in  other  States. 

A.  c.  vol.  xx.  r 


82  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

The  Greek  amatory  epigrams  deal  largely  in  mytho- 
logical views.  Venus  and  Cupid  meet  us  at  every 
turn ;  though  Venus  had  other  attributes  than  those 
which  related  to  lovo. 

This  is  a  celebrated  epigram  upon  Love — that  is, 
Cupid — by  Meleager  : 

"  Dreadful  is  Love  !  dreadful !  but  where's  the  good 
That  oft  this  cry  of  '  dreadful '  is  renewed  ? 
The  urchin  laughs  at  us  ;  though  o'er  and  o'er 
Reproached,  he's  pleased  ;  reviled,  he  thrives  the  more. 
Venus,  thou  sea-born  Queen  !  I  much  admire, — 
Thou,  sprung  from  water,  shouldst  produce  this  fire  !  " 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  of  this  class  of  epigrams 
— or  it  may  be  a  fragment  of  a  little  poem  which  has 
found  its  way  into  the  Anthology — is  said  to  be  by 
Plato,  and  presents  a  lovely  picture  of  the  god  of 
Love  laid  asleep  among  roses,  with  the  bees  settling 
upon  his  lips  : — 

u  We  reached  the  grove's  deep  shadow,  and  there  found 
Cythera's  son  in  sleep's  sweet  fetters  bound, 
Looking  like  ruddy  apples  on  their  tree  : 
No  quiver  and  no  bended  bow  had  he  ; 
These  were  suspended  on  a  leafy  spray. 
Himself  in  cups  of  roses  cradled  lay, 
Smiling  in  sleep  ;  while,  from  their  flight  in  air,  \ 

The  brown  bees  to  his  soft  lips  made  repair,  V 

To  ply  their  waxen  task,  and  leave  their  honey  there."  ) 

"We  shall  have  occasion  to  see  that  the  Greeks  had 
two  Venuses  whom  they  worshipped — one,  the  ordi- 
nary or  Earthly,  the  other  the  Heavenly  Venus.  In 
like  manner  there  were  two  Cupids  corresponding  to 


AMATORY.  83 

that  distinction.  There  are  epigrams  in  the  Anthology 
referring  specially  to  these  several  divinities.  The 
following  epigram  on  the  Heavenly  Cupid  is  ascribed 
to  Marianus,  and  is  quoted  in  Ogle's  interesting  book  on 
'Antiquities  Explained,'  where  it  is  considered  as  illus- 
trating a  beautiful  gem  transmitted  to  us  from  antiquity. 
It  does  not  seem  certain  that  this  is  strictly  the  ca.se  ; 
and  we  shall  here  insert  the  epigram  independently, 
without  special  reference  to  the  gem  in  question.  The 
lines  consist  of  a  dialogue  with  Cupid,  and  sufficiently 
explain  themselves.  The  translation  is  Ogle's  own, 
a  little  altered  :  * — 

"  Where  now  thy  pliant  bow  and  subtle  darts  ? 
Those  shafts  that  seek  to  pierce  onr  inmost  hearts  ? 
Where  now  the  wings  that  speed  thy  rapid  flight? 
Where  now  the  torch  that  sheds  a  baneful  light  ? 
Why  do  those  hands  three  flowery  garlands  hear  ? 
And  why  u  fourth  restrain  thy  lovely  hair?" 
"  Seek'st  thou,  good  stranger,  what  I  am  to  know  ? 
To  no  corporeal  source  my  birth  I  owe. 
No  gross  material  mother  nursed  my  frame  ; 
And  all  the  Vulgar  Venus  I  disclaim. 
Men's  souls  by  me  to  heavenly  science  rise, 
And,  fired  with  purer  flames,  possess  the  skies. 
Four  glorious  wreaths  my  skilful  hands  entwine, 
And  Virtues  four  inspire  the  fair  design. 
Three  of  the  garlands  are  about  me  spread, 
And  this,  the  wreath  of  Wisdom,  binds  my  head." 

The  Earthly  Cupid  has  a  very  different  character ; 
and  the  epigram  that  follows  gives  a  lively  and  clever 

*  Ogle,  p.  58. 


84  TUB  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

account  of  his  pedigree  and  peculiarities.     It  is  by 
Meleagcr : — 

"  No  wonder  Cupid  is  a  murderous  boy, 
A  fiery  archer,  making  pain  his  joy. 
His  dam,  while  fond  of  Mars,  is  Vulcan's  wife  ; 
And  thus  'twixt  fire  and  sword  divides  her  life. 
His  mother's  mother,  too — why,  that's  the  Sea  ! 
When  lashed  with  winds,  a  roaring  fury  she. 
No  father  has  he,  and  no  father's  kin  : 
'Tis  through  the  mother  all  his  faults  flow  in. 
Thus  has  he  Vulcan's  flames,  the  wild  Sea's  rage, 
And  Mars's  blood-stained  darts  his  wars  on  us  to  wage." 

Here  is  a  fanciful  account  of  the  first  entry  of  love 
into  a  man's  breast.  Does  it  suggest  that  wine  may 
often  have  something  to  do  Avith  it?  It  is  by  Julian 
the  Egyptian,  is  a  great  favourite,  and  has  often  been 
translated  : — 

"  Twining  a  wreath,  I  found,  one  day, 
Love,  that  among  the  roses  lay  ; 
Quick  by  the  wings  I  caught  him  up, 
And  plunged  him  in  the  brimming  cup. 
Then  urged  by  thirst's  imperious  call, 
I  drank  the  wine  off,  Love  and  all ; 
And  ever  since,  within  my  breast, 
His  tickling  wings  destroy  my  rest." 

Here  is  one  in  which  the  connection  between  Love 
and  Wine  is  directly  pointed  out.    It  is  by  liufinus  : — 

"  My  breast  is  armed  with  Eeason  against  Love : 
One  against  one,  he  shan't  victorious  prove. 
Though  I'm  a  mortal,  an  immortal  he, 
Yet  from  the  combat  I  will  never  flee. 
But  if  he's  joined  by  Bacchus,  I'm  undone  : 
Who  could  resist  such  odds  of  two  to  one  ? " 


AMATORY.  85 

We  have  already  given  several  of  Meleager's  Sepul' 
chral  and  Amatory  epigrams  ;  but  it  may  now  be  con- 
venient to  add  such  others  of  his  on  the  subject  of 
Love  as  may  best  deserve  our  attention. 

One  of  Meleager's  favourite  female  friends  bears  the 
graceful  name  of  Zonophile — if  indeed  she  was  not  a 
mere  poetical  creation,  for  the  mistresses  of  poets  have 
not  always  been  real  personages.  Wo  shall  give  some 
of  the  epigrams  upon  her  without  further  introduction. 
The  first,  which  describes  the  advent  of  spring,  is 
translated  by  Professor  Wilson  himself,  in  a  flowing 
and  spirited  style  : — 

"  Tis  now  that  the  white  violets  steal  out  the  spring  to 

greet, 
And  that  among  his  longed-for  showers  Narcissus  smiles 

so  sweet. 
'Tis  now  that  lilies,  upland  born,  frequent  the  slopes  of 

green, 
And  that  the  flower  that  lovers  love,  of  all  the  flowers  the 

queen, 

Without  an  equal  anywhere  in  full-blown  beauty  glows  ; 
Thou  know'st  it  well,  Zeuophile  !  Persuasion's  flower,  the 

Rose. 
Ah  !  why,  ye  hills  and  meadows,  does  bright  laughter  thus 

illume 
Your    leafy    haunts  ?    so    lavish    why,    and    prodigal    of 

bloom  ? 
Not  all  the  wreaths  of  all  the  flowers  that  Spring  herself 

might  cull 
As  mine  own  Virgin  e'er  could  be  one-half  so  beautiful !  " 

The  next,  which  celebrates  the  lady's  musical  powers, 
is  translated  by  Mr  Hay : — 


86  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  Tis  a  sweet  strain,  by  Pan  of  Arcady  ! 

Which  warbles  from  thy  lyre  with  thrilling  sound, 
Zenophile.     Oh  !  how  can  I  be  free, 

Since  Loves  on  every  side  enclose  me  round, 
Forbidding  me  to  breathe  a  single  hour 

In  peace  1 — since  first  thy  beauty,  then  thy  lyre, 
Thy  grace,  and  then  ....  Oh  !  words  of  feeble  power, 

Thy  perfect  all  has  set  me  all  on  tire." 

Here  is  an  epigram  which  it  is  supposed  Bon  Jonson 
may  have  had  in  view  in  writing  his  beautiful  song, 
"  Drink  to  me  only  with  thine  eyes  : " — 

"  The  wine-cup  is  glad  :  dear  Zenophile's  lip 
It  boasts  to  have  touched,  when  she  stooped  down  to  sip. 
Happy  wine-cup  !     I  wish  that,  with  lips  joined  to  mine, 
All  my  soul  at  a  draught  she  would  drink  up  like  wine," 

Among  the  Sepulchral  epigrams  has  been  given  Me- 
leager's  beautiful  lament  upon  Heliodora's  death.  We 
shall  now  insert  one  in  an  amatory  strain,  written  before 
that  sad  event,  if  indeed  it  refers  to  the  same  Helio- 
dora.  There  are  many  translations  of  it  in  the  "  Black- 
wood  Papers,"  but  we  think  it  sufficient  to  select  one 
by  Wilson,  in  the  same  free  and  joyous  spirit  which 
his  translations  so  often  present : — 

"  I'll  frame,  my  Heliodora  !  a  garland  for  thy  hair, 
Which  thou,  in  all  thy  beauty's  pride,  mayst  not  disdain 

to  wear  ; 

For  I,  with  tender  myrtles,  white  violets  will  twine — 
WhiUi  violets,  but  not  so  piuv  as  that  pure  breast  of  thine : 
With  laughing  lilies  I  will  twine  narcissus  ;  and  the  sweet 
Crocus  shall  in  its  yellow  hue  with  purple  hyacinth  meet : 


A  MA  TOR  Y.  87 

And  I  will  twine  with  all  the  rest,  and  all  the  rest  above, 
Queen  of  them  all,  the  red  red  Hose,  the  flower  which 
lovers  love." 

The  following,  which  has  "been  much  admired,  but 
has  also  occasioned  some  difficulty  among  critics,  is 
translated  by  Mr  Hay.  It  is  an  address  by  a  lover 
who  has  come  to  the  Hellespont,  but  is  anxious  to 
return  to  the  island  of  Cos,  the  residence  of  Phanion, 
the  object  of  his  affection.  He  wishes  the  ships  that 
;uv  going  southward  to  announce  to  the  lady,  if  they 
should  see  her,  his  speedy  return,  and  to  inform  her 
that  when  he  is  free  he  will  not  risk  the  dangers  and 
delays  of  a  sea-voyage,  but  will  come  to  her  on  foot — 
an  achievement  not  easily  accomplished  literally,  as 
Cos  is  an  island  in  the  ^Egean.  But  the  proposal  to 
come  on  foot  may  either  be  ascribed  to  the  strength  of 
the  poet's  imagination,  or  to  the  prosaic  fact  that  if 
he  came  to  the  land  nearest  to  Cos,  there  was  but  a 
short  sea  passage  interposed  : — 

"  Light  barks  of  Helle's  straits  !  whose  flagging  sails 
'Woo  the  embraces  of  the  northern  gales, 
If  on  the  strand  that  views  the  Coan  steep 
You  see  my  Phanion  gazing  on  the  deep, 
'  Thou  beautiful  ! '  say  to  her,  '  these  thy  sighs 
Hasten  thy  lover  to  thy  longing  eyes  ; 
Maiden  beloved,  I  cannot  wait  the  sea, 
My  eager  feet  will  bring  me  soon  to  thee.' 
Tell  her  these  words,  and  Jove  with  favouring  gales 
Forthwith,  at  length,  will  fill  your  flagging  sails." 

We  shall  conclude  our  extracts  from  Meleager  with 
two  epigrams  on  Cupid  which  are  well  known,  but 


88  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

which  seem  to  be  distinguished  more  for  liveliness  and 
ingenuity  than  for  much  beauty. 

The  first  may  be  called  the  "Hue  and  Cry  after 
Cupid" — a  name  which  Ben  Jonson  has  given  to  a 
very  graceful  masque  embodying  all  the  best  ideas  on 
the  subject  of  the  epigrammatists  and  other  poets. 
Jonson's  own  poem  has  a  proclamation  beginning  with 
this  question  : — 

"  Beauties,  have  you  seen  this  toy, 
Called  Love,  a  little  boy, 
Almost  naked,  wanton,  blind, 
Cruel  now,  and  then  as  kind  1 
If  he  be  among  you,  say  : 
He  is  Venus'  Kunaway." 

The  whole  of  the  poem  is  in  the  true  Greek  spirit,  and 
deserves  to  be  looked  into.  Of  Meleager's  "  Hue  and 
Cry"  we  give  a  translation  by  Merivale,  noticing 
merely  that  Lesbia's  name  is  substituted  for  Zeno- 
phile's,  as  being  shorter,  for  the  rhythm's  sake  : — 

"  Love,  I  proclaim,  the  vagrant  child, 
Who,  even  now,  at  dawn  of  day, 
Stole  from  his  bed  and  flew  away. 
He's  wont  to  weep,  as  though  he  smiled, 
For  ever  prattling,  swift,  and  daring  ; 
Laughs  with  wide  mouth  and  wrinkled  nose  ; 
Wing'd  on  the  back,  and  always  bearing 
A  quiver,  rattling  as  he  goes. 
Unknown  the  author  of  his  birth  ; 
For  Air,  'tis  certain,  ne'er  begot 
The  saucy  boy  ;  and  as  for  Earth 
And  Sea,  both  swear  they  own  him  not : 
To  all  and  everywhere  a  foe. 


AMATORY.  89 

But  you  must  look  and  keep  good  watch, 
Lest  he  should  still  around  you  throw 
Fresh  nets,  unwary  souls  to  catch. 
Stay,  while  I  yet  am  speaking,  lo  ! 
There,  there  he  sits  like  one  forbidden  ; 
And  did  you  hope  to  'scape  me  so — 
In  Lesbia's  eyes,  you  truant,  hidden  ?  " 

The  remaining  epigram  on  Cupid  relates  to  the  pro- 
posal to  sell  the  fugitive  after  he  lias  been  caught. 
The  translation  is  by  Mr  Hay  : — 

"  Sold  he  must  be — there,  while  he  lies  asleep 
On  his  own  mother's  breast  ;  I  cannot  keep 
The'bold,  pert  imp, — the  jeering  winged  pest — 
Whose  active  talons  never  are  at  rest. 
The  chattering,  fearless  creature,  full  of  wiles, 
With  tearful  eyes  suffused,  with  roguish  smiles, — 
Eyes  looking  darts,  whose  glances  all  inilame, 
Whose  wildness  even  his  mother  cannot  tame  ! 
Sold  he  must  be — the  monster  ; — buy  him,  pray, 
i         Good  stranger,  only  bear  him  far  away. 

Stop,  stop,  he  weeps — sold,  dear,  thou  shalt  not  be, 
But  dwell  a  pet  with  my  Zenophile." 

We  give  now  an  epigram  by  Rufinus  referring  to  a 
garland  sent  to  Rhodoclea,  which  may  well  match  with 
Meleager's  to  Heliodora.  The  translation  is  by  Mr 
Hay,  but  his  last  four  lines  have  been  condensed  into 
two,  which  makes  it  correspond  in  length  with  the 
Greek  original : — 

"  This  crown  of  fairest  flowers,  my  Rhodocle, 
Which  my  own  hands  have  wreathed,  I  send  to  thee  : 
The  lily, — the  anemone,  moist  with  dew, 
The  rose,  narcissus,  and  the  violet  blue. 


90  T1IK  GREKK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Thus  crowned,  let  no  vain  thoughts  thy  mind  invade, 
Thou,  and  the  wreath,  Loth  bloom, — and  both  must  fade." 

"We  shall  now  add  two  more  Love  epigrams,  by 
Ilufmus,  which  exhibit  considerable  elegance : — 

"  Where  now  Praxiteles  ?    Where  the  skilful  art 
Of  Polycleitus,  that  could  life  impart  1 
Who  will  mould  Melete's  sweet-scented  hair, 
Her  lustrous  eyes,  her  neck,  like  ivory  fair  ? 
Sculptors  and  casters,  sure  we  owe  a  shrine 
To  her  bright  form  as  to  a  power  divine." 

Here  is  another,  much  admired  and  copied  by  several 
modern  Latin  poets  : — 

"  The  eyes  of  Juno,  Melete,  are  thine, 
Minerva's  hands,  and  Venus'  breasts  divine 
While  thy  fair  feet  like  Thetis'  ankles 
Happy  is  he  who  sees  thee  ;  he  who  hears 
Thy  voice  melodious,  trebly  blest  appears  : 
Who  woos  thee  has  a  demigod's  delight ; 
And  he  who  wins  thee  is  immortal  quite." 

The  feet  of  Thetis  were  particular  objects  of  admira- 
tion, and  "  silver  -  footed  "  was  her  peculiar  epithet. 
The  last  lines  of  the  epigram  remind  one  of  Sappho's 
ode  : — 

"  Blest  as  the  immortal  gods  is  he, 
The  youth  that  fondly  sits  by  thee." 

The  next  epigram  that  we  shall  give  is  by  Agathias, 
and  is  often  quoted,  though  perhaps  it  does  not  pos- 
sess any  high  degree  of  excellence.  The  translation 
is  by  Mr  Hay,  a  good  deal  altered : — 


ivine ;  > 
shine.  ) 


A  MA  TOR  Y.  91 

"  The  livelong  night  I  spend  in  woe. 

And  when  the  dawn  appears, 
That  might  bring  rest  to  soothe  my  breast, 

And  wipe  away  my  tears  ;  . 
These  envious  swallows  haunt  my  door, 

With  pipe  so  loud  and  shrill, 
They  will  not  leave  me  to  repose, 

But  twitter,  twitter,  still. 
Ye  chatterers,  cease  ;  I  did  no  harm 

To  Philomela's  tongue  : 
Go  to  the  hoopoe's  desert  haunts, 

And  there  your  woes  prolong  ; 
And  while  you  mourn  poor  Itys'  fate, 

Perchance  Rhodanthe's  charms 
May  glow  in  dreams  of  blissful  rest, 

Within  these  longing  arms." 

The  story  of  Progne,  Philomela,  Tereus,  and  Itys  is 
too  well  known  to  require  repetition  here. 

The  ideas  and  images  suggested  by  the  passions  or 
strong  affections  of  humanity  are  wonderfully  alike  in 
various  forms  of  society  and  literature.  Nothing  seems 
more  natural  than  the  utterance  of  the  wishes  of  lovers 
to  be  transmuted  into  some  object  that  will  place  them 
in  proximity  to  the  person  beloved.  Here  are  speci- 
mens from  the  Greek.  The  first  is  by  Callistratus, 
who  flourished  in  the  second  century  B.c.  It  is  trans- 
lated, we  think,  by  Merivale  : — 

"  I  wish  I  were  an  ivory  lyrc- 

A  lyre  of  burnished  ivory — 
That  to  the  Dionysian  choir 
Blooming  boys  might  carry  me : 


92  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Or  would  I  were  a,  chalice  bright 
Of  virgin  gold  by  fire  untried, 

For  virgin  chaste  as  morning  light 
To  bear  me  to  the  altar-side." 

Imitated  by  Moore  thus,  in  his  collection  of  Epistles 
and  Odes  : — 

"  If  I  were  yonder  conch  of  gold, 
And  thou  the  pearl  within  it  placed,"  &c. 

This  is  by  Anacreon,  also  translated  by  Mcrivale. 
After  referring  to  the  transmutation  of  Kiobe  arid 
Progne,  the  poet  continues  : — 

"  But  I  would  be  a  mirror, 

So  thou  mayst  pleas'd  behold  me  ; 
Or  robe,  with  close  embraces 

About  thy  limbs  to  fold  me  ; 
A  crystal  fount,  to  lave  thee ; 

Sweet  oils,  thy  hair  to  deck  ; 
A  zone,  to  press  thy  bosom  ; 

Or  pearl,  to  gem  thy  neck  : 
Or,  might  I  worship  at  thy  feet, 

A  sandal  for  thy  feet  I'd  be  ; 
E'en  to  be  trodden  on  were  sweet, 

If  to  be  trodden  on  by  thee." 

Here  is  another,  also,  we  think,  very  beautiful.  It  is 
by  some  ascribed  to  Rufinus,  by  others  to  Dionysius 
the  Sophist — while  others,  again,  describe  it  as  of  un- 
certain parentage.  Mr  Merivale  has  translated  it  so 
far,  but  for  some  reason  or  other  has  omitted  the  last 
couplet  as  it  appears  in  the  Planudean  Anthology. 
This  we  shall  endeavour  to  supply,  while  we  adopt  Mr 


AM  A  TOR  Y.  93 

Mcrivale's  version  as  far  as  it  goes,  with  a  slight  alter- 
ation to  bring  it  nearer  the  original : — 

"  Oh  that  I  were  some  gentle  air, 

That  when  the  heats  of  summer  glow, 
And  lay  thy  panting  bosom  bare, 

I  mi^'ht  upon  that  bosom  blow  ! 
Oh  that  I  were  yon  blushing  rose, 

Which  even  now  thy  hands  have  pressed, 
That  I  might  love  in  sweet  repose, 

Reclining  on  thy  snowy  breast ! 
Oh  that  I  were  a  lily  fair, 

That,  culled  by  fingers  fairer  still, 
I  might  thy  every  movement  share, 

And  on  thy  beauty  gaze  my  fill ! " 

See  how  modern  feelings  are  apt  to  run,  as  Christopher 
North  says,  'into  the  same  sort  of  amorous  fancy." 
Komeo  in  Shakespeare  breathes  the  wish — 

"  Oli  that  I  were  a  glove  upon  that  hand, 
That  I  might  touch  that  cheek  !  " 

Christopher  also  appropriately  refers  to  Burns  : — 

"  O  that  my  love  were  yon  red  rose 
That  grows  upon  the  castle  wa', 
And  I  myself  a  drap  o'  dew, 
Into  her  bonny  breast  to  fa' ! " 
O,  there,  beyond  expression  blest, 
I'd  feast  on  beauty  a'  the  nicht, 
Sunk  on  her  silk-saft  faulds  to  rest, 
Till  fley'd  awa'  by  Phoebus'  licht." 

Shakespeare,  though  no  great  scholar,  had  himself  lived 
among  profound  and  accomplished  scholars.  But 
Burns,  we  should  think,  knew  little  or  nothing  of 


94  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

the  Greek  anthologists ;  yet  see  how  he  fell  into  their 
style,  and  instinctively  adopted  their  spirit.  Here  is 
another  example.  There  is  an  anonymous  Greek 
epigram  which  may  be  thus  translated  : — 

"  Two  evils,  Poverty  and  Love, 

My  anxious  bosom  tear  ; 
The  one  my  heart  would  little  move, 
But  Love  I  cannot  bear." 

What  is  this  but  Burns's  passionate  lament  1 — 

"  0  poortith  cauld,  and  restless  love, 
Ye  wreck  my  peace  between  ye  : 
But  poortith  a'  I  could  forgie, 
An'  'twerena  for  my  Jeanie." 

Again,  the  exquisite  "Posie"  of  our  Scottish  bard 
equals  and  surpasses  those  garlands  sent  to  their 
mistresses  by  Meleager  and  Eufinus,  which  we  have 
above  quoted.  The  truth  is,  that  all  these  poets, 
Greek  and  British,  had  the  same  schoolmistress, 
Nature,  who  teaches  her  pupils  a  universal  language. 

Two  or  three  smaller  epigrams  of  this  class  may 
here  be  given.     This  is  said  to  be  by  Plato  : — 

"  My  star,  thou  view'st  the  stars  on  high  : 
Would  that  I  were  that  spangled  sky, 
That  I,  thence  looking  down  on  thee, 
With  all  its  eyes  thy  charms  might  see." 

This  is  also  ascribed  to  Plato,  and  it  is  certain  that 
when  a  young  man  he  wrote  several  amatory  poems : — 

"  My  soul,  love,  on  my  lips,  while  kissing  thee, 
Fluttered  and  longed  to  flit  across  from  me." 


AMATORY.  95 

This  is  by  Capito  : — 

"  Beauty,  on  wliich  no  graces  wait, 

May  please,  but  not  retain  ; 
Just  as,  without  the  barb,  the  bait 
Floats  useless  011  the  main." 

This  is  by  Asclepiades  : — 

"  Sweet  to  the  thirsty  man  is  snow,  to  quench  the  summer's 

heat  ; 
The  winter's  end,  the  spring's  return,  to  sailors  too  is 

sweet ; 
But  sweeter  far  when  lovers  twain  have  found  a  blissful 

bower, 
Where  mutual  vows  and  mutual  love   will   speed   each 

happy  hour." 

This  is  anonymous  : — 

"  Venus,  if  men  at  sea  you  save, 
And  rescue  i'roni  the  whelming  wave, 
Me,  too,  a  lover,  I  implore, 
Save  from  worse  shipwreck  here  on  shore." 

This  epigram,  by  Callimachus,  was  admired  and  para- 
phrased by  Horace : — 

"  The  hunter,  in  the  mountains,  every  roe, 
And  every  hare,  pursues  through  frost  and  snow, 
Tracking  their  footsteps.     But  if  some  one  say, 
'  See  !  here's  a  beast  struck  down,'  he  turns  away. 
Such  is  my  love  :  I  chase  the  flying  game, 
And  pass  with  coldness  the  self-offering  dame." 

"We  may  include  in  this  chapter  a  fantastic  epigram 
by  Agathias  cm  the  loves  of  Venus  and  Anchises. 
Anchises  in  his  old  age  still  desires  to  testify  his 
devotion  to  the  goddess,  and  presents  her  with  the 


96  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

only  black  hair  he  can  find  in  his  head,  addressing  her 
at  the  same  time  in  these  words  : — 

"  Venus,  thy  spouse  Anchises,  whose  young  love 
Oft  drew  thy  footsteps  to  the  Idsean  grove, 
Brings  one  dark  hair,  with  difficulty  found, 
Sole  relic  of  that  age  when  joys  abound. 
Thou,  goddess  (for  thou  canst),  his  youth  restore, 
Or  take  grey  hairs  for  what  he  was  of  yore." 

Henry  Stephens,  for  want,  no  doubt,  of  something 
better  to  do,  gave  105  Latin  translations  of  this  last 
couplet. 

We  shall  now  conclude  our  amatory  extracts  with  an 
epigram  by  Theocritus  on  the  HEAVENLY  VENUS  : — 

"  Venus,  but  not  the  Vulgar  one,  you  view  : 
Call  her  the  Heavenly  ;  'tis  her  title  due. 
Her  image  here  Chrysogone,  the  chaste, 
Within  the  house  of  Amphicles  has  placed, 
With  whom  a  happy  married  life  she  led, 
And  many  goodly  children  bore  and  bred. 
Each  rolling  year  was  better  than  the  past, 
Flowing  from  thee,  Divine  One,  first  and  last : 
For  they  who  gratefully  the  gods  adore, 
Still  find  their  joys  increasing  more  and  more." 


CHAPTER    V. 

DIDACTIC. 

THE  next  class  of  epigrams  on  which  wo  shall  enter  is 
the  Didactic,  or  Gnomic,  as  they  may  be  called — 
those,  namely,  that  relate  to  the  knowledge  of  life  and 
duty,  and  which  involve  the  maxims,  precepts,  or 
prudential  rules  by  which  our  conduct  may  be  guided. 
It  deserves  to  be  remembered  that  the  dissemination 
of  such  truths  and  precepts  was  an  early  part  of  the 
system  that  led  to  inscriptional  writings.  Hipparchus, 
as  we  have  already  indicated,  added  to  the  more  direct 
announcements  of  the  Hernia?,  or  landmarks  put  up  by 
him,  a  set  of  moral  sentences  for  popular  instruction  ; 
and  some  of  these  have  been  handed  down  to  us. 
Here  is  an  example.  The  original  consisted  of  an 
hexameter  and  pentameter  line.  The  hexameter  on 
one  side  of  the  Hermes  described  the  locality ;  the 
pentameter  on  the  other  set  forth  the  name  of  the 
party  erecting  the  imago,  with  the  moral  precept 
meant  to  be  inculcated — thus  : 

"  This  Hermes  stands  where  Thria  and  the  city's  limits 

meet: 
Hipparchus  raised  this  monument :   LET  JUSTICE  QUIDS 

YOUR   FEET." 

A.  o.  vol.  xx.  a 


98  THE   GREEK  AXTHOLOGY. 

There  is  another,  of  which  the  first  line  is  lost;  the 
last  is  preserved  : — 

"  The  Deme  of   ...    here  begins  :    the   city's  precincts 

end  : 
TTipparclms  raised  this  monument :   NEVER  DECEIVE  A 

FKIEND." 

At  a  later  period  such  precepts  or  truths  would  be 
inscribed  anywhere,  according  to  individual  taste  or 
fancy,  wherever  there  was  a  vacant  slab  or  an  avail- 
able pillar,  on  a  summer-house  or  in  a  dwelling,  as  was 
done  by  the  eccentric  Englishman  who  put  up  the 
motto  of  "  Waste  not,  want  not "  in  his  kitchen,  not, 
probably,  without  some  necessity  for  the  admonition  ; 
and  often  such  sayings  would  have  no  other  existence 
than  as  literary  efforts  to  be  read  or  committed  to 
memory,  which  their  metrical  form  would  facilitate. 

One  of  the  most  excellent  of  this  class  of  epigrams 
appears  in  the  form  of  a  model  prayer  by  a  pious  and 
enlightened  heathen,  such  as  Socrates  might  be  sup- 
posed to  have  preferred.  It  is  anonymous  : — 

"  Asked  or  unasked,  things  good,  great  Jove,  supply  : 
Things  evil,  though  we  ask  for  them,  deny." 

This  is  like  the  prayer  recommended  by  Juvenal  in 
his  celebrated  tenth  satire,  and  imported  by  Johnson 
into  his  "  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes  : " — 

"  Still  raise  for  Good  the  supplicating  voice, 
But  leave  to  Heaven  the  measure  and  the  choice." 

Of  special  blessings  to  be  desired,  one  of  the  most 
frequent  is  that  of  mediocrity  of  fortune  :  "  Give  nie 


DIDACTIC.  09 

neither  poverty  nor  riches."     Here  are  some  examples. 
The  first  is  by  Parmenio,  translated  by  Mr  Hay  : — 

"  Enough  for  me  this  cloak,  though  homely  spun  ; 
Fed  on  the  flowers  of  song,  your  feasts  I  shun  : 
I  hate  your  wealthy  fool — the  flatterer's  god — 
Nor  hang  I  trembling  on  his  awful  nod  : 
Calm  and  contented,  I  have  learned  to  feel 
The  blessed  freedom  of  a  humble  meal." 

Here  is  another  by  Alpheus  of  Mitylene,  quaint,  anil 
often  translated  by  Latin  versifiers  : — 

"  I  care  not  for  those  wide  and  fertile  fields, 

Nor  all  the  wealth  that  Gyges  held  in  fee  : 
What  joy  a  self-sufficing  fortune  yields, 
Such  modest  livelihood  is  dear  to  me. 
The  wise  old  maxim,  ' Not  too  much' — 
Too  much  has  power  my  heart  to  touch." 

The  just  appreciation  of  wealth,  and  the  knowledge 
of  its  true  uses,  is  a  favourite  subject. 

This  is  by  Lucian,  the  translation  partly  by  Hay : — 

"  Enjoy  your  goods  as  if  your  death  were  near  : 
Save  them  as  if  'twere  distant  many  a  year. 
Sparing  or  spending,  be  thy  wisdom  seen 
In  keeping  ever  to  the  gulden  mean." 

Or  thus : — 

"  Wise  is  tne  man,  prepared  for  either  end, 
Who  in  due  measure  can  both  spare  and  spend." 

This  is  upon  a  miser,  anonymous  : — 

"  All  say  that  you  are  rich  :  I  say,  Not  so  : 
You're  poor :  wealth  only  by  its  use  we  know. 
What  you  enjoy  is  yours  :  what  for  your  heirs 
You  hoard,  already  is  not  yours  but  theirs." 


100  TIIK  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

This  is  by  Paul  the  Silentiary,  translated  by  Hay  :— 

"  No  gracious  boon  is  life,  if  vexing  cares 
Wither  the  temples  with  thin  hoary  hairs 
Be  mine  enough — since  too  much  golden  store 
Always  corrodes  the  maddened  heart  the  more. 
Thence  better  oft,  amid  this  mortal  strife, 
Is  poverty  than  riches,  death  than  life. 
Since  thus  it  is,  on  Wisdom  fix  thy  gaze ; 
Hers  thy  heart's  wishes,  hers  be  all  its  ways." 

This,  again,  is  upon  a  miser,  by  Lucillius : — 

"  Yours  is  a  pauper's  soul,  a  rich  man's  pelf : 
Kich  to  your  heirs,  a  pauper  to  yourself." 

The  transitory  nature  of  property  is  thus  depicted  by 
an  unknown  writer.  A  field  is  personified  as  speak- 
ing :— 

"  Once  I  was  Achnemenides's  field  : 
He  to  Menippus  now  his  claim  must  yield. 
Thus  I  for  ever  pass  from  hand  to  hand, 
And  each  possessor  thinks  me  his  own  land. 
All  of  them  think  so  ;  but  they  all  are  wrong  ; 
To  none,  but  Fortune  only,  I  belong." 

The  following  reflection  upon  the  succession  of  heirs, 
said  to  be  by  Simonides,  is  to  the  same  effect : — 

"  My  heir  rejoices  when  I  die  ;  and  so 
His  heir  will  do,  when  he  in  turn  shall  go  : 
This  debt  we  all  of  us  to  nature  owe." 

It  is  a  great  question  whether  life  on  the  whole  is 
happy  or  the  reverse.  Archias,  who,  without  being 
original,  is  often  elegant,  commends  the  Thracians  for 
their  views  in  this  respect.  The  translation  is  a  little 


DIDACTIC.  101 

altered  from  Hay's,  and  a  couplet  borrowed  from  Bland 
has  been  added  : — 

^  Praiseworthy  are  the  Thracians,  who  lament 

The  infant  that  hath  left  its  mother's  womb  : 
Who  deem  those  happy,  too,  whom  Death  has  sent 

Without  prevision  to  the  peaceful  tomb. 
Well  in  their  grief  and  gladness  is  express'd 
That  Life  is  labour,  and  that  Death  is  rest." 

Two  epigrams  are  well  known  as  advocating  opposite 
views  of  human  life, — the  one  maintaining  that  no 
course  or  career  is  satisfactory,  and  that,  as  Silenus 
was  said  to  have  taught,  it  is  better  either  to  have 
never  been  born,  or  immediately  to  die ;  the  other, 
that  every  path  or  position  in  life  has  its  advan- 
tages, and  that  life  on  the  whole  is  a  boon  and  a 
source  of  enjoyment. 

The  epigram  against  Life  is  by  Posidippus,  or,  as 
some  say,  Crates.  The  translation  is  by  Hay  : — 

"  Which  the  best  way  of  life  ?     The  forum  rings 
With  bickering  brawls  ;  home,  too,  vexation  brings  : 
Toil  in  the  country,  terror  reigns  at  sea  : 
Abroad  wealth  trembles  lest  its  goods  may  flee  ; 
And  want  is  woe  :  trouble,  thy  name  is  wife  : 
A  single  is  a  solitary  life  : 
Children  are  cares  ;  cheerless  a  childless  state  : 
Youth  is  but  folly  ;  weak  a  hoary  pate. 
Since  thus  it  is,  a  wise  man  still  should  cry 
Ne'er  to  be  born,  or  being  born  to  die." 

The  opposite  side  of  the  argument  is  maintained  by 
Metrodorus,  the  translation  slightly  altered  from 
Hay's  : — 


102  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  Good  all  the  ways  of  life  :  the  forum  rings 
With  deeds  of  glorious  enterprise  ;  home  brings 
Sweet  rest ;  the  charms  of  Nature  clothe  the  fields ; 
The  sea  brings  gain  :  abroad  wealth  honour  yields  : 
Want  may  be  hid  ;  comfort,  thy  name  is  wife  : 
A  single  is  a  free  and  easy  life. 
Children  are  joys  :  cares  shun  the  childless  bed  : 
Strength  attends  youth  ;  reverence  the  hoary  head. 
Since  thus  it  is,  a  wise  man's  choice  should  be, 
Both  to  be  born,  and  born  such  good  to  see." 

Whether  life  on  the  whole  be  a  success  or  a  failure, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  uncertain,  both  in  its 
tenure  and  duration,  and  that  at  the  best  its  enjoyments 
are  fleeting  and  perishable.  Hear,  on  this  subject,  a 
strain  from  our  old  friend  Simonides,  though  it  is 
liker  an  elegy  than  an  epigram.  The  translation  we 
give  is  by  Merivale  : — 

"  All  human  things  are  subject  to  decay  : 
And  well  the  man  of  Chios  tuned  his  lay — 
*  Like  leaves  on  trees  the  race  of  man  is  found  ; ' 
Yet  few  receive  the  melancholy  sound, 
Or  in  their  breasts  imprint  this  solemn  truth, 
For  hope  is  near  to  all,  but  most  to  youth. 
Hope's  vernal  season  leads  the  laughing  hour? 
And  strews  o'er  every  path  the  fairest  flowers  : 
To  cloud  the  scene,  no  distant  mists  appear  ; 
Age  moves  no  thought,  and  death  awakes  no  fear. 
Ah  !  how  unmindful  is  the  giddy  crowd 
Of  the  small  span  to  youth  and  life  allowed  ! 
Ye  who  reflect,  the  short-lived  good  employ  ; 
And  while  the  power  remains,  indulge  your  joy." 

Some  of  this  translation  is  too  free ;  and  to  the  four 


DIDACTIC.  103 

lines  beginning   "  Hope's   vernal   season,"  we  should 
prefer  the  following,  as  closer  to  the  original : — 

"  While  the  light  heart  the  joys  of  youth  deceive, 
We  dream  of  tilings  we  never  can  achieve. 
Age  moves  no  thought,  and  death  awakes  no  fear  : 
Nor  look  we  for  disease  while  health  is  here." 

This  is  by  Lucian  : — 

"  Things  owned  by  mortals  needs  must  mortal  be, 
Away  our  hest  possessions  from  us  flee  ; 
And  if  at  times  they  seem  disposed  to  stay, 
Then  we  from  them  too  quickly  ilee  away." 

This  is  anonymous  : — 

"Short  is  the  rose's  bloom  ;  another  morn 
Will  show  no  rose,  but,  in  its  stead,  a  thorn." 

Regarding  life  as  thus  uncertain  and  transitory,  the 
great  question  comes  to  be,  in  what  manner  it  shall 
best  be  passed,  so  as  to  secure  the  blessings  which  it  is 
capable  of  yielding.  Two  opposite  views  on  this  sub- 
ject will  always  be  taken  by  different  schools  of 
thought  and  morals.  Labour  and  virtue  will  be  the 
resources  of  the  one,  and  pleasure  and  .self-indulgence 
of  the  other.  Simonides,  we  are  glad  to  say,  wiJl  bo 
found  here  to  have  chosen  the  better  part,  though  now 
and  then  he  may  seem  to  relax  the  strictness  of  his 
tone.  His  fragment  upon  Virtue  is  worthy  of  all 
praise.  The  translation  we  give  is  partly  borrowed 
from  Mr  Hay  : — 

M'Tis  Raid  that  Virtue  dwells  sublime 
On  rugged  cl ill's,  full  hard  to  climb, 


104  TUE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Where  round  her  ranged,  a  sacred  band 
Acknowledge  her  divine  command  ; 
But  mortal  ne'er  her  form  may  see, 
Unless  his  restless  energy 
Breaks  forth  in  sweat  that  gains  the  goal, 
The  perfect  manhood  of  the  soul." 

The  allusion  to  "  sweat "  as  the  outward  token  of 
generous  exertion  is  frequent  in  the  best  Greek  poets. 
Thus  Hesiod,  as  translated  by  Elton  : — 

"  Where  Virtue  dwells,  the  gods  have  placed  before 
The  dropping  sweat  that  springs  from  every  pore, 
And  ere  the  feet  can  reach  her  bright  abode, 
Long,  rugged,  steep  the  ascent,  and  rough  the  road. 
The  ridge  once  gained,  the  path  so  hard  of  late 
B,uns  easy  on,  and  level  with  the  gate." 

The  two  following  epigrams  may  also  be  referred  to. 
They  purport  to  contain  the  words  that  "Juno  would 
have  spoken,"  when  Hercules  on  his  deification  was 
admitted  to  Olympus.  They  are  both  anonymous  : — 

"  Now,  Hercules,  your  virtue's  generous  sweat 
Has  from  your  sire  this  bright  requital  met  • 
After  its  round  of  conflicts,  labour  gains 
Unbounded  honour  to  reward  its  pains." 

"  Labour  and  mighty  sweat  have  for  you  gained 
This  grace,  a  seat  in  heaven,  by  none  before  attained." 

Another  epigram  by  Onestes  has  a  close  resemblance 
to  some  of  those  we  have  just  quoted  : — 

"  You  toiled  up  Helicon  ;  but  nectar,  poured 
t  From  the  Pegasian  well,  your  strength  restored  : 
So  Wisdom's  path  is  steep  ;  but,  gained  the  height, 
The  Muses'  gifts  will  fill  you  with  delight." 


DIDACTIC.  105 

It  should  be  observed  that  in  classical  writers  the 
Muses  do  not  represent,  as  they  often  do  with  us,  the 
powers  of  poetry  or  even  of  literature  only,  but 
embrace  the  whole  range  of  the  sciences,  including 
physical  science.  Thus  Virgil,  in  his  Second  Georgic, 
describing  the  objects  of  his  ambition,  speaks  in  these 
terms  : — 

"  Ye  sacred  Muses  !  with  whose  beauty  fired 
My  soul  is  ravished  and  my  brain  inspired, 
Whose  priest  I  am,  whose  holy  fillets  wear, 
Would  you  your  poet's  first  petition  hear, 
Give  me  the  ways  of  wandering  stars  to  know, 
The  depths  of  heaven  above,  and  earth  below,"  &c. 

This  that  follows  is  a  noble  strain  in  praise  of  Equa- 
nimity, by  Archilochus,  which  we  here  give,  though 
his  era  is  earlier  than  that  of  the  proper  epigram- 
matists. The  translation  is  Mr  Hay's,  somewhat 
altered  :— 

"  Toss'd  on  a  sea  of  troubles,  Soul,  my  Soul, 

Thyself  do  thou  control ; 
And  to  the  weapons  of  advancing  foes 
A  stubborn  breast  oppose  ; 
Undaunted  'mid  the  hostile  might 
Of  squadrons  burning  for  the  fight. 

Thine  be  no  boasting,  when  the  victor's  crown 

•    Wins  thee  deserved  renown  ; 
Thine  no  dejected  sorrow,  when  defeat 
Would  urge  a  base  retreat  : 
Rejoice  in  joyous  things — nor  overmuch 

Let  grief  thy  bosom  touch 
'Midst  evil,  and  still  bear  in  mind, 
How  changeful  are  the  ways  of  humankind." 


106  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Let  us  add  one  or  two  more  of  these  high-minded 
compositions. 

This  is  a  versification  of  a  celebrated  thought  ex- 
pressed by  Thales ;  it  is  by  Luciau  : — 

"  Committing  wrong,  the  chance  may  be  that  you  elude 

men's  eyes  ; 
You   never  can  elude  the  gods,  when  wrong  you  e'en 

devise." 

What  follows  is  said  to  be  the  precept  of  a  Pythian 
oracle  : — 

"  Cleansed  in  thy  soul,  enter  the  holy  place 

Of  the  pure  god,  touching  the  lustral  wave  ; 
The  good  need  little  water,  but  the  base 

Free  from  their  guilt  not  ocean's  self  can  lave." 

The  contemplation  of  death  is  necessarily  in  its 
various  aspects  present  to  the  minds  of  all  thinking 
men,  and  there  are  many  Greek  epigrams  upon  it, — 
some  of  them  dealing  with  it  in  a  high  and  noble 
spirit,  and  others  seeking  to  use  it  chiefly  as  an  in- 
centive to  present  enjoyment.  It  is  not  every  one 
of  our  pagan  friends  who  realised  the  wise  wisli  of 
Martial,  that  he  might  always  be  able 

"  To  look  on  life  with  placid  eye, 
And  neither  fear  nor  wish  to  die." 

But  the  Greek  poets  were  not  generally  cowards  in 
this  matter.  This  by  Agathias  is  a  fair  specimen. 
The  version  is  chiefly  taken  from  Bland  : — 

"  Why  fear  ye  death,  the  parent  of  repose, 
That  pats  an  end  to  penury  and  pain  ? 


DIDACTIC.  107 

His  presence  once,  and  only  once,  he  shows, 

And  none  have  seen  him  e'er  return  again. 
But  maladies  of  every  varying  hue 
In  thick  succession  human  life  pursue." 

/Kschylus  had  anticipated  this  last  idea  by  writing  of 
death  as  the  only  "healer  of  irremediable  ills." 

The  following  epigram  by  ^Esopus  takes  a  some- 
what similar  view  of  death  as  a  remedy.  The  trans- 
lation is  by  Dr  Wellesley  : — 

"  From  tliee,  0  life  !  and  from  thy  myriad  woes, 
Who  but  by  death  can  flee  or  find  repose  ? 
For  though  sweet  Nature's  beauties  gladden  thee, 
The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  earth,  the  sea, 
All  else  is  fear  und  grief ;  and  each  success 
Brings  its  retributive  unhappiness." 

We  are  not  indiscriminately  fond  of  Palladas's 
epigrams,  though  Erasmus  is  said  to  have  admired 
them.  Some  of  them  are  repulsive ;  but  the  follow- 
ing, though  exaggerated,  aims  at  a  higher  tone.  It 
is  uncertain  whether  Palladas  was  a  Christian  : — 

"  The  Body  is  a  torture  to  the  Soul  ; 
A  hell,  a  fate,  a  load,  a  stern  control, 
That  weighs  it  to  the  ground  with  many  woes, 
Nor  e'er  allows  it  to  enjoy  repose. 
But  from  the  Body,  as  from  Death,  set  free, 
It  ilies  to  God  and  Immortality." 

We  shall  here  insert  another  by  Palladas  as  to  the 
advantages  of  the  mediocrity  of  fortune  : — 

"  Envy,  as  Pindar  has  averred, 
To  Pity  should  be  much  preferred : 
The  envied  have  a  brilliant  fate  ; 
Pity  is  given  where  griefs  are  great. 


108  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

But  I  would  wish  alike  to  be 
From  pity  and  from  envy  free. 
A  mean  is  best :  high  places  know 
Great  perils  :  scorn  still  haunts  the  low. 

Many  of  the  epigrammatists,  it  must  be  confessed, 
make  the  shortness  and  uncertainty  of  life  ami  the 
certainty  of  death  an  argument  for  conviviality.  Ex- 
hortations such  as  we  are  now  to  introduce  are  common. 
The  first  one  is  anonymous ;  the  translation  com- 
pounded from  Bland  and  Wellesley  : — 

"  Drink  and  be  glad  :  to-morrow  what  may  he, 
Or  what  thereafter,  none  of  us  can  see. 
Haste  not  nor  fret  :  but  now  as  well's  you  may, 
Feast  and  be  merry  ;  freely  give  away  ; 
Remember  joye  can  last  but  with  the  breath, 
And  think  how  short  a  space  parts  life  and  death  ; 
An  instant : — seize  what  good  may  now  befall  ; 
Dead,  thou  hast  nothing,  and  another  all." 

Tliis,  to  the  same  effect,  is  by  Palladas  ;  the  version  is 
j tartly  Hay's  : — 

"  To  die  is  due  by  all :  no  mortal  knows 
Whether  to-morrow's  dawn  his  life  may  close. 
Knowing  this  well,  O  man,  let  cheering  wine, 
That  sweet  forgetfulness  of  death,  be  thine. 
Give  way  to  love  too  :  live  from  day  to  day, 
And  yield  to  Fate  o'er  all  things  else  the  sway." 

This  next  remonstrance  obviously  comes  from  a  volup- 
tuary, who,  besides  thinking  a  bird  in  the  hand  worth 
two  in  the  bush,  prefers  that  any  expensive  offerings 
should  be  given  when  he  can  feel  the  good  of  them, 
rather  than  when  he  is  incapable  of  doing  so.  It  is 
anonymous — the  translation  by  Merivale  : — 


DIDACTIC.  109 

u  Seek  not  to  glad  these  senseless  stones 

With  fragrant  ointments,  rosy  wreaths  ; 
No  warmth  can  reach  our  mouldering  bones 

From  lustral  fire  that  vainly  breathes. 
Now  let  me  revel  whilst  I  may  : 

The  wine  that  o'er  my  grave  is  shed 
Mixes  with  earth  and  turns  to  clay  : 

No  honours  can  delight  the  dead." 

"We  may  here  advert  to  a  practice  that  seems  to 
have  been  observed  in  Greece,  connected  with  the  feel- 
ings which  we  are  describing,  and  which  presents  a 
melancholy  and  to  Christian  minds  a  miserable,  feel- 
ing. The  Greeks,  it  is  generally  thought,  did  not  use 
skeletons  and  death's-heads  as  funeral  emblems,  but 
rather  represented  death  on  their  monuments  under 
the  form  of  Sleep,  in  the  act  often  of  extinguishing  a 
torch.  But  they  did  use,  or  at  least  the  voluptuaries 
among  them  used,  the  more  painful  reminiscences  of 
death  as  incentives  to  social  indulgences.  A  very 
singular  epigram  has  been  preserved  illustrating  this 
practice.  It  is  by  Polemo,  and  seems  to  refer  to 
some  gem  or  ornament  of  a  convivial  tendency  ;  and, 
indeed,  the  last  couplet  is  said  to  have  been  found  in- 
scribed on  a  gem  : — 

"The  poor  man's  armour  see  !  this  flask  and  bread, 
This  wreath  of  dewy  leaves  to  deck  the  head  ; 
This  bone,  too,  of  a  dead  man's  brain  the  shell, 
The  Soul's  supreme  and  holy  citadel. 
The  carving  says,  '  Drink,  eat,  and  twine  your  flowers  ; 
This  dead  man's  state  will  presently  be  ours.' " 

Herodotus   tells  us  that  the   old  Egyptians  at  their 


110  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

banquets  used  to  send  round  a  wooden  form  of  a 
skeleton  with  this  exhortation — "  Looking  upon  this, 
irink  and  enjoy  yourself;  for  when  you  are  dead  you 
will  be  like  this."  Plutarch  says  of  this  custom  that 
though  it  was  unseemly,  yet  it  had  this  use,  "  to  incite 
the  spectators  not  to  luxury  and  drunkenness,  but  to 
mutual  love  and  friendship," — which  is,  to  say  the 
least,  somewhat  doubtful. 

We  are  afraid  that,  upon  the  whole,  temperance  in 
the  use  of  wine  was  not  a  conspicuous  virtue  among  the 
Greeks,  or  at  least  among  the  Athenians.  Their  tendency 
to  indulgence  in  this  respect  may  be  inferred  not  merely 
from  their  dramatists  and  miscellaneous  writers,  but 
also  from  the  philosophical  accounts  of  their  Symposia, 
as  represented  by  Plato  and  Xenophon,  though  they 
seem  to  have  submitted  to  certain  restraints  of  a 
rather  peculiar  kind.  There  was  an  idea  that  drinking 
was  not  generally  allowable  to  young  men,  but  was  a 
privilege  of  the  old,  who  needed  it  more  ;  and  Socrates 
in  Plato  lays  it  also  down  as  a  medical  rule  that  drink- 
ing should  not  take  place  on  two  consecutive  evenings. 
The  conversations,  of  course,  would  vary  according  to 
the  character  of  the  guests  ;  but  if  Plato's  writings  are 
to  be  held  as  founded  on  fact,  it  is  clear  that  very  late 
and  long  sittings  must  have  been  thus  spent.  Such 
excesses  were  all  the  more  likely  to  take  place,  and  to 
become  exaggerated,  from  the  exclusion  of  women 
from  their  feasts  ;  and  when  once  established,  the  con- 
versational propensities  of  the  Greeks,  or  at  least  of  the 
Athenians,  would  make  them  frequent  and  favourite 
enjoyments. 


DIDACTIC.  Ill 

The  customs  of  different  countries  in  these  respects 
are  well  worth  observing,  Probably  the  French,  of  all 
other  nations,  most  nearly  approach  to  the  Greeks  in 
conversational  powers  and  propensities ;  but  the  forms 
of  French  society  and  some  of  their  national  virtues, 
their  courtesy  to  women,  and  their  habitual  temper- 
ance, led  to  this  result,  that  the  drawing-rooms  or  ladies' 
apartments  were  the  Ordinary  scenes  of  their  conversa- 
tional displays,  and  that  women  not  only  held  their 
own  part  but  took  the  lead  in  these  reunions.  On 
the  other  hand,  English  ladies  have  their  share  of  con- 
versation, but  a  peculiarity  exists  in  English  society 
little  known  elsewhere.  Talleyrand,  we  believe,  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  the  half-hour,  more  or  less, 
passed  by  men  in  England  over  their  wine,  after  the 
ladies  have  left  the  dinner  -  table,  is  an  important 
adjunct  to  the  British  constitution.  Englishmen  seem 
to  need  some  wire  to  brighten  their  faculties ;  when 
left  alone  in  this  way  they  can  talk  freely  on  all  pub- 
lic subjects  without  mixing  up  ladies  with  .politics, 
and  a  tone,  it  is  thought,  is  attained,  among  political 
thinkers,  of  moderation,  courtesy,  and  mutual'  forbear- 
ance, eminently  conducive  to  that  most  important 
object,  the  predominance  of  good  sense  and  sound 
judgment  in  all  public  matters. 

The  freedom  of  conviviality  adopted  and  enjoined 
by  the  Greeks  may  be  seen  in  some  of  their  popular 
sayings  ;  and  among  others,  in  the  proverb  which 
denounced  as  a  nuisance  any  bottle-companion  that 
has  "a  good  memory."  This  idea  is  vigorously  ex- 
panded in  the  following  epigram  by  Antipater  : — 


112  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  Not  the  setting  of  the  Pleiades  so  fearful  is  to  me, — 

Not  the  howling  round  the  rugged  rock  of  a  wild  and 
stormy  sea, — 

Not  the  flash  that  fires  the  mighty  heavens, — as  the  water- 
drinking  fellow, 

Who  remembers  and  repeats  the  things  we  said  when  we 
were  mellow." 

We  suspect  we  must  hold  that  both  Plato  and  Xeno- 
phon  come,  strictly  speaking,  under  the  censure  of 
being  convivial  companions  who  "  remember  and  re- 
peat "  what  passes  at  wine-parties  ;  for  many  of  their 
reminiscences  relate  to  scenes  where  wine  has  had  a 
good  deal  to  do  with  the  conversation;  but  the  world  will 
not  regret  that  in  this  respect  they  should  have  trans- 
gressed the  rule  imposed  on  ordinary  convivialities. 

It  ought  here  to  be  mentioned  that  the  character  of 
the  Greek  wine  generally  was  such  that  all  but  the 
grossly  intemperate  diluted  it  largely  with  water. 
Even  the  mixture  of  half-and-half  was  thought  too 
.strong.  Several  epigrams  contain  allusions  to  this 
subject.  This  is  by  Meleager.  The  nymphs  are  the 
impersonation  of  water  : — 

"  Bacchus,  from  Semele's  scorched  body  saved, 
The  Nymphs  received,  and  with  pure  water  laved. 
Hence  he  and  they  are  friends  :  if  you  decline 
To  let  them  mix,  you'll  swallow  fire  for  wine." 

Carousals  were  generally  conducted  according  to  some 
method  prescribed  or  enforced  by  a  chosen  president 
or  symposiarch,  as  he  was  called.  The  great  distinc- 
tion was  whether  the  drinking  should  be  compulsory  or 
optional  as  to  quantity,  men  of  sense  of  course  prefer- 


DIDACTIC.  113 

ring  the  voluntary  system.     This  is  illustrated  by  the 
following  epigram  by  Onestes  : — 

"  Freedom  in  drinking  always  is  the  best : 
Force  is  an  insult  to  both  wine  and  guest. 
Some  on  the  ground  their  wine  will  slily  pour  ; 
Some  under  ground  may  sink  to  Lethe's  shore. 
Away,  ye  sots  !  the  needs  of  natural  joy 
A  modest  measure  amply  will  supply." 

We  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  lay  before  our  readers 
more  of  these  convivial  verses,  or  to  give  them  any  of 
the  Anacreontic  class,  with  which  most  people  must 
be  familiar  in  some  shape  or  other.  The  best  imita- 
tion in  English  of  the  Anacreontic  style  is  perhaps  io 
bo  found  in  Cowley's  smaller  poems. 

This  section  may  be  concluded  by  a  few  miscel- 
laneous epigrams  on  general  life  and  manners. 

The  first  we  give  is  a  fanciful  supplication  to  two 
of  our  faculties,  by  Macedonius.  It  reminds  us  of  the 
saying  of  Themistocles,  when  Simonides  proposed  to 
teach  him  Mnemonics,  or  the  art  of  memory,  that  he 
would  rather  learn  the  art  of  forgetfulness  : — 

"  Memory,  and  thou,  Forgetfulness,  all  hail ! 
Each  in  her  province  greatly  may  avail. 
Memory,  of  all  things  good  remind  us  still : 
Forgetfulness,  obliterate  all  that's  ill." 

This  is  a  kind  of  counterpart,  by  the  same  author  : — 

"  Memory,  and  thou,  Forgetful  ness,  not  yet 
Your  powers  in  liapjjy  harmony  I  find: 
One  oft  recalls  what  I  would  fain  f'orp-1, 

And  one  blots  out  what  I  would  bear  in  mind." 
A.  C.  Vol.  XX.  H 


114  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

This,  which  is  anonymous,  embodies  the  well-known 
saying  of  Anaxagoras,  that  every  place  is  at  the  same 
distance  from  the  infernal  regions  :  — 

"  Straight  the  descent  to  Hades,  whencesoe'er, 
From  Athens  or  from  Meroe,  you  fare  : 
Nor  grieve  to  die  when  far  from  home  ;  you'll  find 
To  Hades  everywhere  a  favouring  wind." 

The  next  is  by  Lucillius  : — 

"  I  mourn  not  those  who  lose  their  vital  breath  ; 
But  those  who,  living,  live  in  fear  of  death." 

This  is  by  Palladas  : — 

"  Father  of  flatterers,  Gold,  of  Pain  and  Care  begot, 
A  fear  it  is  to  have  thee,  and  a  pain  to  have  thee  not." 

This,  again,  is  by  Lucillius  : — 

"  If  one  grown  old  still  longer  life  implores, 
I  wish  his  years  prolonged  for  many  scores." 

This  is  by  Theognis  : — 

"  Woe's  me  for  joyful  youth,  and  joyless  eld  ! 
This  coming,  I  behold  ;  that  going,  I've  beheld." 

The  next  is  by  Philo  : — 

"  Grey  hairs  are  wisdom — if  you  hold  your  tongue  : 
Speak — and  they  are  but  hairs,  as  in  the  young." 

This  is  by  Lucian  : — 

"  The  happy  think  a  lifetime  a  short  stage  : 
One  night  to  the  unhappy  seems  an  age." 

This,  upon  deliberation  and  rashness,  is  by  the  same  : — 
"  Slow-footed  Counsel  is  most  sure  to  gain  • 

o  " 

Rashness  still  brings  llepentance  in  her  train." 


DIDACTIC.  115 

Give  quickly,  if  you  give  at  all,  is  thus  recommended 
by  an  anonymous  writer  : — 

"  Swift  kindnesses  are  best :  a  long  delay, 
In  kindness,  takes  the  kindness  all  away." 

This,  too,  is  anonymous  : — 

"  Too  much  is  always  bad  :  old  proverbs  call 
Even  too  much  honey  nothing  else  than  gall." 

This  next,  which  is  also  anonymous,  requires  some 
explanation,  as  it  turns  upon  the  letters  of  the  Greek 
alphabet : — 

"  Six  hours  suffice  for  work  :  when  these  we  give, 
The  next  four  letters  order  us  to  'live.'" 

It  has  been  a  common  amusement  for  studious  men  to 
expand  this  epigram  by  a  more  minute  subdivision  of 
time.  In  Sir  Edward  Coke's  Diary  there  is  a  Latin 
triplet  on  the  subject,  of  which  Mr  Amos,  in  his  inter- 
esting '  Gems  of  Latin  Poetry,'  tells  us  that  he  found 
this  version  upon  a  fly-leaf  of  an  old  law-book  : — 

"  Six  hours  to  sleep  allot :  to  law  be  six  addressed  : 
Pray  four :  feast  two  :  the  Muses  claim  the  rest." 

Sir  William  Jones  tried  to  improve  this  by  rather  too 
quaint  a  conceit,  thus  : — 

"  Seven  hours  to  law  ;  to  soothing  slumber  seven  : 
Ten  to  the  world  allow  ;  and  all  to  Heaven." 

His  couplet  had  been  misquoted,  and  Mr  Amos  points 
out  an  unmeaning  dispute  between  Croker  and  Mac- 
aulay  on  the  basis  of  that  false  reading.* 

*  Arm,  Gems,  p.  120. 


llti  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

These  modern  compositions  are  all  obviously  founded 
upon  the  Greek  epigram  above  given,  but  of  which 
the  essential  part  cannot  be  seen  in  a  translation. 
The  turning-point  of  it  lies  here,  that  the  letters  of 
the  Greek  alphabet,  with  the  addition  of  three  other 
signs,  are  used  as  numerals ;  and  when  you  have  ex- 
pressed the  six  hours  in  that  way,  the  next  four  letters 
are  these — z,  e,  th,  i,  which,  when  put  together,  make 
the  imperative  mood  of  the  verb  to  live.  To  live,  we 
suspect,  may  have  a  good  many  different  meanings. 
"  To  live  and  love  "  is  a  phrase  of  Catullus ;  but  the 
best  view  of  the  epigram  is  to  suppose  that  "  living  " 
here  embraces  all  the  employments  and  enjoyments  of 
life  that  will  enable  us  better  to  labour  when  the 
season  of  labour  returns.  We  find  it  thus  expanded 
in  a  stray  MS.  found  in  a  folio  Anthology : — 

"  Six  hours  are  due  to  labour,  and  no  more  : 
Count  these  in  letters,  and  the  following  four 
Tell  man  to  '  live  : '  to  eat  and  drink  and  play, 
And  sleep  and  wake,  and  think,  and  watch  and  pray." 

The  following  is  an  epigram  by  Macedonius,  giving 
a  very  liberal  view  of  the  duties  of  hospitality,  a  vir- 
tue particularly  necessary  in  certain  states  of  society, 
and  not  inappropriate  in  a  pretty  wide  sense  in  some 
remote  parts  even  of  our  own  country  : — 

"  Stranger  and  countryman  to  me 
Welcome  alike  shall  ever  be. 
To  ask  of  any  guest  his  name, 
Or  whose  he  is,  or  whence  he  came, 
I  hold  can  never  be  his  part 
Who  owns  a  hospitable  heart." 


DIDACTIC.  117 

The  following  is  a  eulogium  on  the  value  of  friend- 
ship, anonymous  : — 

"  A  good  friend's  a  great  treasure,  Heliodorus, 
As  great  as  any  Heaven  can  set  before  us  : 
At  least  to  him  to  whom  'tis  also  given 
To  keep,  when  he  has  got,  that  gift  of  Heaven." 

Here  is  an  ingenious  recommendation  to  secure  the 
friendship  of  an  affectionate  woman,  by  Antipater  : — 

"  Me,  a  dry  plane-tree  now,  a  clustering  vine 
Envelops  :  this  fair  foliage  is  not  mine. 
Yet  once  I  nursed  her  fruit  with  many  a  bough, 
As  verdant  and  as  fresh  as  she  is  now. 
Do  thou  thus  strive  to  gain  a  woman's  love, 
Who  to  thy  dying  day  will  grateful  prove." 

"We  may  conclude  this  section  with  a  sententious 
enumeration  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece,  which, 
as  it  is  rather  like  doggerel  in  the  Greek,  can  scarcely 
appear  better  in  the  translation.  It  is  anonymous  : — 

"  I'll  tell  the  names  and  sayings  and  the  places  of  their 

birth, 
Of  the  Seven  great  ancient  Sages,  so  renowned  on  Grecian 

earth  : 

The  Lindian  Cleobulus  said — '  The  mean  was  still  the  best : 
The  Spartan  Chilo,  '  Know  thyself,'  a  -heav'u-born  phrase 

confessed  : 

Corinthian  Periander  taught,  '  Our  anger  to  command  : ' 
'  Too  much  of  nothing,'  Pittacus,  from  Mitylene's  strand  : 
Athenian  Solon  this  advised,  '  Look  to  the  end  of  life  : ' 
And  Bias  from  Prieue  showed,  '  Bad  men  are  the  most 

rife  : ' 

Milesian  Thales  urged  that  '  None  should  e'er  a  surety  be :' 
Few  were  their  words,  but,  if  you  look,  you'll  much  in 

little  see." 


CHAPTER   VX 

LITERARY    AND    ARTISTIC. 

THE  next  class  of  epigrams  to  be  noticed  consists  of 
the  Literary  and  Artistic,  which,  often  run  into  each 
other,  and  may  therefore  be  embraced  in  the  same 
section,  although  they  admit  of  a  certain  degree  of 
separation. 

LITERARY. 

The  epigrams  upon  poets  may  begin  the  list.  It 
has  been  supposed  that  these  epigrams,  which  are  very 
numerous,  had — many  of  them  at  least — originally 
formed  a  continuous  poem,  exhibiting  a  gallery  of 
the  successive  poets  thus  celebrated.  This  may  to  a 
certain  extent  have  been  the  case,  particularly  as  a 
considerable  number  of  these  epigrams  are  by  the 
same  author — Antipater  of  Sidon.  But  that  circum- 
stance is  not  conclusive ;  there  are  a  groat  many  other 
epigrams  by  other  authors,  and  they  descend  to  us  cer- 
tainly as  detached  compositions. 

There  come  here,  in  the  first  place,  two  upon  Or- 
pheus. The  following  is  by  Antipater ;  the  translation 
partly  from  the  versions  of  Bland  and  Hay  : — 


LITERARY  AND    ARTISTIC.  119 

"  No  longer,  Orpheus,  will  thy  soothing  song, 
Oaks,  rocks,  and  lawless  monsters  lead  along  : 
No  longer  lull  the  stormy  winds  to  sleep  ; 
The  hail,  the  drifting  snow,  the  raging  deep. 
Thou'rt  gone  ;  the  Muses  weep  around  thy  bier, 
And  most,  Calliope,  thy  mother  dear. 
Why  mourn  our  children  lost,  when  from  the  grave 
The  gods  themselves  cannot  their  offspring  save  !" 

The  next  is  anonymous.  The  Thracian  women,  in 
a  fit  of  frenzy,  had  put  Orpheus  to  death,  but  now 
lamented  him  with  all  the  tokens  of  repentance  : — 

"  Orphciis,  now  dead, — Calliope's,  and  high  CEagrus'  son, — 

The  fair-haired  Thracian  women  wept,  racing  the  deed  thus 
done  : 

Their  arms  they  lanced  with  weapons  keen,  till  the  blood 
freely  flowed, 

And  o'er  their  locks,  in  sign  of  grief,  were  dust  and  ashes 
strowed. 

The  Muses,  too,  with  the  bright  god  who  bears  the  hea- 
venly lyre, 

Burst  into  tears  and  tuneful  sighs — a  melancholy  choir, 

Mourning  their  much-loved  minstrel  much  ;  while  rocks 
and  trees  around 

Added  their  wail  J'or  him  whose  harp  had  soothed  them 
with  its  sound." 

Homer  comes  next,  on  whom  there  is  here  an 
epigram  by  Antiphilus,  translated  by  Mr  Hay.  It  is 
in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  Antiphilus  and  the 
Iliad  and  Odyssey  : — 

Antiphihts.  Who  are  ye,  Books,  and  what  do  ye  contain  ? 

Books.  Daughters  of  Homer  we,  and  we  explain 
The  tale  of  Troy,  Achilles1  wrath,  the  might 
Of  Hector's  struggle  in  the  ten  years'  fight, 


120  THE   GREEK   ANTHOLOGY. 

Ulysses'  toils,  the  tears  bis  consort  shed, 
The  wooers'  struggles  for  her  widowed  bed. 

Antiphilus.  Great  Works,  go  join  the  Muses'  choir  in 

heaven, 
For  Time  proclaims  their  number  now  eleven. 

This  is  by  Leonidas  of  Tarentum  : — 

"  The  fiery  sun,  when  wheeling  up  heaven's  height, 
Obscures  the  stars  and  the  moon's  holy  light ; 
So  Homer,  seen  'mid  the  poetic  throng, 
Dims  by  his  splendour  all  the  orbs  of  song." 

Every  one  knows  the  verses — 

"  Seven  Grecian  cities  vied  for  Homer  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his  bread  ; " 

a  tradition  which  doubtless  suggested  to  Horace 
Smith  the  supposition,  that  his  Egyptian  mummy 
might  in  his  day  "  have  dropped  a  halfpenny  in 
Homer's  hat."  The  seven  cities  have  been  differently 
enumerated  in  different  epigrams,  but  this  couplet 
will  give  one  edition  of  them  : — • 

"  Seven  cities  vied  for  Homer's  birth,  with  emulation  pious, 
Salamis,  Samos,  Colophon,  Rhodes,  Argos,  Athens,  Chios." 

Antipater  will  have  it  that  this  uncertainty  is  easily 
explained  and  easily  solved.  The  translation  is  Meri- 
vale's  : — 

"  From  Colophon  some  deem  thee  sprung  ; 
From  Smyrna  some,  and  some  from  Chios  ; 
These  noble  Salamis  have  sung, 
While  those  proclaim  thee  born  in  los  ; 
And  others  cry  up  Thessaly, 
The  mother  of  the  Lapithae. 


LITERARY  AND    ARTISTIC.  121 

Thus  each  to  Homer  has  assigned 

The  birthplace  just  which  suits  his  mind  ; 

But  if  I  read  the  volume  right, 

By  Phoebus  to  his  followers  given, 

I'd  say  they're  all  mistaken  quite  : 

His  real  country  must  be  Heaven  ; 

While  for  his  mother — She  can  be 

No  other  than  Calliope." 

There  are  many  more  epigrams  upon  Homer,  but  we 
must  make  a  selection. 

This  is  by  Philippus  the  Anthologist.  It  is  some- 
what commonplace : — 

"Sooner  shall  heaven  put  out  the  stars — the  night 
Be  gilded  by  the  sun's  resplendent  light  ; 
The  sea  to  men  a  pleasant  beverage  yield, 
Or  the  dead  rise  to  range  Life's  busy  h'eld, 
Than  blank  forgetfulness  shroud  Homer's  name, 
And  of  those  ancient  pages  quench  the  fame." 

Another,  by  Alcseus  of  Messene,  is  founded  on  the 
tradition  that  Homer  died  on  the  island  of  los,  and 
that  his  death  was  occasioned  or  hastened  by  his  ina- 
bility to  solve  a  foolish  riddle  propounded  to  him  by 
some  fisher  lads,  against  which  catastrophe,  it  is  said, 
he  had  been  warned  by  an  oracle.  The  story  of  the 
riddle  is  beneath  contempt,  though  riddles,  from  tha 
time  of  the  Sphinx,  were  serious  things,  as  may  also 
appear  from  the  Scripture  story  of  Samson.  The 
translation  is  by  Mr  Hay,  a  little  altered  : — 

"  Sorely  afflicted  was  the  hero's  bard, 
AYlirn  los'  sons  devised  that  riddle  hard  : 
Upon  their  Homer's  corse  the  Nereids  pour 
Nectar,  when  stretched  upon  its  cliffy  shore  ; 


122  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

For  he  had  honoured  Thetis  and  her  son,  } 
AVith  other  heroes  who  had  glory  won,  > 

And  told  the  deeds  by  wise  Ulysses  done.  ) 
los,  though  small,  most  blest  of  Isles  !  since  he, 
The  Muses  and  the  Graces'  star,  now  sleeps  in  thee  ! " 

This  that  follows  is  by  Alpheus  of  Mitylene  : — 

"  Still  of  Andromache  the  wail  we  hear, 

Still  see  Troy's  ramparts  tottering  to  the  ground  ; 
The  din,  where  Ajax  fights,  still  strikes  the  ear, 

And  steeds  drag  Hector's  corse  the  walls  around, 
Through  Homer's  Muse,  whom  not  one  laud  alone, 
But  climes  of  either  world  proclaim  their  own." 

Several  of  the  other  epigrams  upon  Homer  have  a 
connection  probably  with  those  feelings  which  ulti- 
mately came  to  pay  him  divine  honours,  and  which 
culminated  in  that  wonderful  work  of  art,  the  Apo- 
theosis of  Homer,  now  preserved  among  the  Townley 
Sculptures  in  the  British  Museum.*  Here  is  an  epi- 
gram upon  a  statue  of  Homer  erected  at  Argos — the 
author  anonymous  : — 

"  This  is  the  god-like  Homer  ;  he  who,  fraught 
AVith  wisest  words,  to  Greece  high  glory  brought : 
And  most  to  Argives,  who  the  god-built  Troy 
Did  for  fair  Helen's  crime  by  force  destroy. 
Grateful  to  him  their  city  here  has  placed 
His  image,  and  with  heavenly  honours  graced." 

The  next  epigram,  which  is  anonymous,  seems  to 
point  directly  to  a  kind  of  apotheosis  : — 

"If  Homer  is  a  god,  let  worship  due  be  given  ; 
If  he  is  not  a  god,  then  think  him  now  in  heaven." 

*  See  '  Handbook  to  the  Antiquities  of  the  British  Museum,1 
in  which  a  woodcut  of  this  beautiful  bus- relief  is  given. 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  123 

What  follows  belongs  to  that  class  of  epigrams  of 
which  there  are  many  in  the  Anthology,  with  the  title, 
"  What  words  some  one  would  have  said  as  to  some 
particular  person  or  occasion."  It  is  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Apollo  : — 

"  I  sang  those  songs  that  gained  so  much  renown  : 
I  Phoebus  ;  Homer  merely  wrote  them  down." 

Our  next  epigram  is  rather  an  extravagant  piece  of 
jocularity : — 

"  Homer  so  sang  of  Troy  destroj'ed  by  fire, 
That  envy  seized  the  towns  that  stood  entire." 

This  is  upon  Hesiod,  by  Asclepiades  or  Arehias ;  the 
translation  by  Gold  win  Smith  :— 

"  The  Muses,  Hesiod,  on  the  mountain  steep, 
Themselves  at  noon  thy  flocks  beheld  thee  keep  ; 
The  bright-leaved  bay  they  plucked,  and  all  the  Nine 
Placed  in  thy  hand  at  once  the  branch  divine. 
Then  their  dear  Helicon's  inspiring  wave, 
Fi'Diu  where  the  wing'd  steed  smote  the  ground,  they  gave, 
Which  deeply  quaffed,  thy  verse  the  lineage  told 
Of  gods,  and  husbandry,  and  heroes  old." 

The  next  poet  to  be  noticed  is  Archilochus,  a  writer 
of  wonderful  reputation  among  the  ancients,  but  of 
whom  we  have  only  a  few  fragments,  full  of  a  sublime 
energy  enough  to  convince  us  of  the  character  and 
spirit  of  what  we  have  lost.  He  was  born  of  a  noble 
family  at  Paros,  whence  he  emigrated  in  his  youth  to 
Thasos,  at  the  time  when  a  colony  of  Parians  was 
founded  in  that  place.  "  He  was,"  says  Professor 
Wilson,  "  among  the  lirst,  and  by  far  the  greatest,  of 


124  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

soldier-poets ;"  "  yet  on  the  field  of  battle  he  left  be- 
hind his  shield," — an  incident  which  he  sought  to  gloss 
over  by  writing  the  following  epigram,  of  which  we 
give  Merivale's  translation  : — 

"  The  foeman  glories  o'er  my  shield — 
I  left  it  on  the  battle-field : 
I  threw  it  down  beside  the  wood, 
Unscathed  by  scars,  unstained  with  blood. 
And  let  him  glory  :  since  from  death 
Escaped,  I  keep  my  forfeit  breath, 
I  soon  may  tind  at  little  cost 
As  good  a  shield  as  that  I've  lost." 

He  was  a  fearful  satirist,  and  there  is  a  strange  story 
of  his  having  driven  to  suicide  the  daughters  of  Ly- 
cambes  by  a  lampoon,  in  revenge  for  some  slight  or 
injury  received  from  one  of  them,  his  betrothed  or  his 
wife,  Neobule. 

Epigrams  upon  him  are  to  be  found,  sometimes 
laudatory  and  sometimes  the  reverse.  We  begin  with 
one  in  his  praise  by  Leonidas  or  Theocritus.  The 
translation  is  founded  on  a  very  poor  one  by  Fawkes, 
which  it  is  not  easy  to  raise  above  mediocrity : — 

"  Stand,  and  Archilochus,  the  bard,  behold  ! 
Him,  by  his  keen  iambics  known  of  old  : 
Whose  glory  has  by  myriad  pathways  run 
To  realms  of  night  and  to  the  rising  sun. 
The  Muses  much  their  zealous  votary  loved  ; 
And  Phoebus,  too,  on  him  his  favour  proved  : 
Where  care  and  skill  were  matched  with  equal  fire, 
Fit  strains  to  frame  and  sing  them  to  his  lyre." 

The  next  will  show  the  reverse  of  the  medal: — 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  125 

"  Archilochus's  seaside  tomb  you  see, 
Who  first  with  viperous  gall  stained  poesie, 
Wounding  sweet  Helicon — Lycambes  knew 
Its  fury  well,  when  'twas  his  fate  to  view 
Three  strangled  daughters  whom  this  slanderer  slew. 
Pass  softly,  stranger,  lest  it  be  your  doom 
To  wake  the  wasps  that  settle  on  his  tomb." 

There  are  more  of  the  same  kind,  but  the  subject  is 
not  a  pleasant  one.  One  view,  however,  in  an  epigram 
of  a  lighter  kind,  suggests  that  if  he  had  not  taken  to 
satire,  lie  might  have  rivalled  the  greatest  of  poets  : — 

"  Here  lies  Archilochus,  whom  the  Muse  impelled 
To  fierce  iambics,  that  with  venom  swelled  : 
Lest  her  dear  Homer  she  should  see  excelled." 

The  next  of  the  poets  in  order  seems  to  be  Sappho, 
on  whom  there  are  several  epigrams. 
This  is  by  Antipater  : — 

"  Sappho  my  name,  in  song  o'er  women  held 
As  far  supreme,  as  Homer  men  excelled." 

The  next  is  by  Pinytus  : — 

"  This  tomb  reveals  where  Sappho's  ashes  He, 
But  her  sweet  words  of  wisdom  ne'er  will  die." 

This,  again,  is  by  Antipater,  translated  by  Welles- 
ley: — 

"  Amazement  seized  Mnemosyne 
At  Sappho's  honey'd  song  : 
'  What,  does  a  tenth  Muse,  tlu>n,'  cried  she, 
'  To  mortal  men  belong  ! ' " 

Here  is  another,  anonymous: — 


126  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  Come,  Lesbian  maids,  to  blue-eyed  Juno's  grove, 
With  steps  that  lightly  o'er  the  entrance  move. 
There  to  the  goddess  form  a  graceful  dance, 
While  Sappho  as  your  leader  shall  advance, 
Bearing  her  golden  lyre.     With  her  rejoice  ! 
Her  song  will  seem  Calliope's  own  voice." 

This  is  ascribed  to  Plato  : — 

"  Some  thoughtlessly  proclaim  the  Muses  nine  , 
A  tenth  is  Lesbian  Sappho,  maid  divine." 

Coupled  with  Sappho's  name,  and  next  hers  in 
order,  we  sometimes  meet  with  that  of  Erinna,  but 
there  is  not  sufficient  ground  for  assigning  to  that 
poetess  so  early  a  date.  She  was  obviously,  however, 
a  favourite  with  the  epigrammatists,  and  seems  to 
deserve  her  reputation,  though  we  have  not  enough  of 
her  poetry  preserved  to  enable  us  fully  to  appreciate 
her.  What  we  begin  with  is  anonymous  : — 

"  This  is  Erinna's  honeycomb,  though  small 
Tis  of  the  Muses'  sweets  commingled  all; 
Three  hundred  lines  that  match  with  Homer's  lays : 
Such  power  this  maid  of  nineteen  years  displays. 
Her  mother's  frown,  the  distaff  and  the  loom 
Ordained,  but  for  the  Muses  left  some  room. 
Sappho  in  lyrics  o'er  Erinna  shone, 
But  was  in  epic  verse  as  much  by  her  outdone." 

Here  is  another  by  Antipater,  translated  by  Meri- 
vale  ;  a  little  altered  : — 

"  Few  were  thy  words,  Erinna,  short  thy  lay, 

But  thy  short  lay  the  Muse  herself  had  given  ; 
Thus  never  shall  thy  memory  decay, 

Nor  night  obscure  thy  fame,  which  lives  in  heav'n. 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  ll'7 

While  we,  the  unnumbered  banls  of  after-times, 
Sink  in  the  melancholy  grave  unseen  ; 

Unhonoured  reach  Avernus'  laltled  climes, 
And  leave  no  record  that  we  once  have  been. 

Sweet  are  the  graceful  swan's  melodious  lays, 
Though  but  an  instant  heard,  and  then  they  die  ; 

But  the  long  chattering  of  discordant  jays, 
The  winds  of  April  scatter  through  the  sky." 

Here  is  a  catalogue  of  eight  of  the  most  distin- 
guished lyric  poets,  to  which  the  addition  of  Snpplm 
would  make  a  ninth  ;  but  her  sex,  it  is  said,  seems 
rather  to  recommend  that  she  should  be  kept  to  make 
a  tenth  Muse.  It  is  anonymous  : — 

"  Pindar  from  Thebes  gave  forth  a  mighty  shout : 
Simonides  melodious  lays  breathed  out : 
Stesichorus  and  Ibycus  shone  bright : 
Airman,  liucrliylidi-s,  g;ive  soft  delight  : 
Persuasion  dwelt  on  gay  Anacreon's  tongue  : 
Alcams  to  ^Eolia  nobly  sung. 
Sappho  would  make  a  ninth  :  but  fitter  she, 
Among  the  Muses,  a  tenth  Muse  to  be." 

We  may  add  here  a  somewhat  similar  enumeration, 
by  another  uncertain  author,  translated  by  Merivalc. 
Here  Sappho's  name  is  included  "  to  make  up  nine:" — 

"  Q  sacred  voice  of  the  Pierian  choir, 
Immortal  Pindar  !     0  enchanting  air 
Of  sweet  Bacchylides  !     0  rapturous  lyre, 
Majestic  graces,  of  the  Lesbian  fair  ! 

Muse  of  Anacreon,  the.  gay,  the  young ! 
Stesichorus,  thy  full  Homeric  stream  ! 
Soft  elegies  by  Coca's  poet  sung  ! 
Persuasive  Ibycus,  thy  glowing  theme  ! 


128  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Sword  of  Alcseus,  that,  with  tyrant's  gore 
Gloriously  painted,  lift'st  thy  point  so  high  ! 
Ye  tuneful  nightingales  that  still  deplore 
Your  Alcman,  prince  of  amorous  poesy  ! 
Oh  yet  impart  some  breath  of  heavenly  fire 
To  him  who  venerates  the  Grecian  lyre  !" 

A  catalogue  of  female  poets  may  here  be  given  as  a 
counterpart :  it  is  by  Antipater  of  Thessalonica : — 

"  These  god-tongued  women  were  with  song  supplied 
From  Helicon  to  steep  Pieria's  side  : 
Prexilla,  Myro,  Anyte's  grand  voice — 
The  female  Homer  ; — Sappho,  pride  and  choice 
Of  Lesbian  dames,  whose  locks  have  earned  a  name, 
Erinna,  Telesilla  known  to  fame. 
And  thou,  Corinna,  whose  bright  numbers  yield 
A  vivid  image  of  Athene's  shield. 
Soft-sounding  Nossis,  Myrtis  of,  sweet  song, 
Work-women  all  whose  books  will  last  full  long. 
Nine  Muses  owe  to  Uranus  their  birth, 
And  nine — an  endless  joy  for  man — to  Earth." 

Pindar  is  well  entitled  to  one  epigram  all  to  him- 
self, and  it  is  here.     It  is  by  Antipater  : — 

"  As  the  war- trumpet  drowns  the  fawn-bone  flute, 
So,  when  your  shell  is  heard,  all  else  is  mute. 
Not  vainly  did  the  swarm  of  brown  bees  drip 
Their  wax-bound  honey  on  your  infant  lip  : 
Witness  the  horned  god,  aside  who  flings       ^ 
His  pastoral  reeds,  and  your  high  lyrics  sings." 

/ 

The  dramatic  poets  come  next  in  order. 

ON    AESCHYLUS. 

By  Dioscorides. 

"Thespis'  invention,  and  the  sylvan  plays, 
And  Bacchic  games  that  gained  the  rustic's  praise, 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  129 

s  raised  aloft,  and  nobler  made  ; 
Not  bringing  carved  and  curious  words  to  aid, 
But  like  a  torrent  rushing  down  with  force, 
And  stirring  all  things  in  its  mighty  course, 
lie  changed  the  stage's  forms  :  O  voice  sublime, 
Fit  for  a  demigod  of  ancient  time." 

ON  THE  SAME. 

By  Diodorus. 
"  This  tombstone  tells,  '  Here  zEschylus  is  laid  :' 

By  Gela's  streams,  from  his  own  land  afar : 
Illustrious  bard !  what  envious  fate  has  made 
Athenians  ever  with  good  men  at  war  !" 

ON  THE  TOMB  OF  SOPHOCLES. 
By  Simmias  of  Thebes  :  translation  from  the  '  Spectator. 

"  Wind,  gentle  evergreen,  to  form  a  shade 
Around  the  tomb  where  Sophocles  is  laid. 
Sweet  ivy,  lend  thine  aid,  and  intertwine 
With  blushing  roses  and  the  clustering  vine. 
Thus  shall  thy  lasting  leaves,  with  beauties  hung, 
Prove  grateful  emblems  of  the  lays  lu  sung." 

These  lines  have  been  set  to  music  iu  the  form  of  a 
graceful  catch  or  canon. 

ON  EURIPIDES. 

Anonymous. 

"  Thou  met'st,  Euripides,  a  mournful  fate  ! 
When  on  thee  wolf-dogs  did  their  hunger  sate ! 
The  scene's  sweet  nightingale,  the  Athenians'  pride  ! 
Whose  songs  show  grace  with  wisdom  well  allied, 
At  Pella  thou  hast  found  a  tomb,  that  he 
Who  was  the  Muses'  priest,  should  near  the  Muses  be." 

Euripides  was  said  to  have  met  his  fate  in  a  mys- 
A.  c.  vol.  xx.  I 


130  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY 

terious  manner,  being  devoured  at  night  by  dogs,  sup- 
posed to  have  been  set  on  him  by  an  enemy  or  rival. 

AN  INSCRIPTION  FOR  HIS  CENOTAPH  NEAR  ATHENS. 

u  This  tombstone  is  no  monument  of  thee, 
But  thou  of  it,  Euripides,  shall  be  : 
Thy  glory  clothes  it,  and  men  come  to  see." 

ON  ARISTOPHANES. 
By  Plato  :  translation  by  Merivale. 

"  The  Graces,  seeking  for  a  shrine, 

Whose  glories  ne'er  should  cease, 
Found,  as  they  strayed,  the  soul  divine 
Of  Aristophanes." 

This  is  good ;  but  it  has,  we  think,  at  least  one 
fault,  in  adding  the  epithet  "  divine."  The  original 
has  it  not :  it  contents  itself  with  saying  that  the 
Graces  found  what  they  did  find,  and  which  it  is  in- 
ferred was  just  what  they  wanted.  The  following 
avoids  that  superfluity. 

"  The  Graces  sought  some  holy  ground, 

Whose  site  should  ever  please  ; 
And  in  their  search  the  soul  they  found 
Of  Aristophanes." 

The  modest  charm  of  "  not  too  much  "  is  one  of  the 
lessons  which  the  best  Greek  compositions  may  teach 
us.  The  literal  translation  of  the  Greek  is  this  : — 

"  The  Graces,  seeking  to  possess  some  sacred  enclosure 
which  should  never  fail,  found  the  soul  of  Aristo- 
phanes." 

As  Plato  was  a  warm  admirer  of  Aristophanes,  it  is 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  131 

not  improbable  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  beauti- 
ful and  felicitous  epigram  referred  to. 

THE  BOOKS  OF  ARISTOPHANES. 
By  Antipater  of  Thessalonica,  translated  by  Dr  Wellesley. 

"  The  plays  of  Aristophanes  !  around  that  work  divine 
The  Achaniian  ivy's  clust'ring  wreaths  in  verdant  glory 

twine. 
What  inspiration  in  the  page  !  'tis  Bacchus'  self! — What 

sounds 

Of  graceful  poesy,  which  yet  with  dreaded  wit  abounds. 
Genius   of  Comedy  !    how  just !    how  true   to   all  that's 

Greek  ! 
Whate'er  in  satire  or  in  jest  thy  personages  speak." 

ON  MENANDEK. 
Anonymous. 

"  The  bees  themselves  on  thy  lips  honey  dropped, 
Thence,  where  the  Muses'  flowers  their  zeal  had  cropped ; 
The  Graces,  too,  Menander,  made  thee  know 
Of  bright  dramatic  wit  a  happy  How. 
Thou'lt  ever  live  ;  to  Athens  will  be  given 
A  fame  through  thee  to  touch  the  clouds  of  heaven." 

This  survey  of  the  poets  may  not  unfitly  be  con- 
cluded by  the  epitaph  on  Leonidas  of  Tarentum, 
whether  it  be  written  by  himself  or  by  some  one  in 
his  name.  It  discloses,  apparently,  a  true  account  of 
the  life  of  wandering  and  hardship  that  he  had  led. 
The  translation  is  by  Merivale  : — 

"  Far  from  Tarentum's  native  soil  I  lie, 
Far  from  the  dear  land  of  my  infancy. 
Tis  dread ful  to  resign  thjfc. mortal  breath, 
But  in  a  stranger  clinic  'tis  worse  than  death! 


132  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Call  it  not  life  to  pass  a  fevered  age. 

In  ceaseless  wanderings  o'er  the  world's  wide  stage. 

But  me  the  Muse  has  ever  loved,  and  giv'n 

Sweet  joys  to  counterpoise  the  curse  of  heav'n ; 

Nor  lets  my  memory  decay,  but  long 

To  distant  times  preserves  my  deathless  song." 

In  what  goes  before,  the  poets  exclusively  have  been 
dealt  with  ;  but  a  few  epigrams  are  to  be  found  upon 
historians  and  philosophers.  The  jeu  $  esprit  upon 
Herodotus  which  follows,  is  not  a  sufficient  tribute  to 
the  merits  of  that  delightful  historian.  It  is  by  Leoni- 
das  of  Alexandria,  the  translation  by  Mr  de  Teissier  : 

"  The  Muses  to  Herodotus  one  day 
Came,  nine  of  them,  and  dined  ; 
And  in  return,  their  host  to  pay, 
Left  each  a  book  behind." 

It  is  well  known  that  the  history  of  Herodotus,  in 
nine  books,  had  the  name  of  a  Muse  affixed  to  each. 

ON  A  STATUE  OF  PLUTARCH. 
By  Agathias  :  the  translation  by  Dryden. 
"  Cheronean  Plutarch,  to  thy  deathless  praise 
Does  martial  Borne  this  grateful  statue  raise  : 
Because  both  Greece  and  ehe  thy  fame  have  share'1 
(Their  heroes  written,  and  their  lives  com] tared)  ; 
But  thou  thyself  couldst  never  write  thy  own  ; 
Their  lives  have  parallels,  but  thine  has  none." 

To  THE  IMAGE  OP  AN  EAGLE  NEAR  PLATO'S  TOMB. 

Anonymous. 

"  Eagle,  why  stand' st  thou  on  that  tomb,  and  why 
Look'st  thou  aloft  to  yonder  starry  sky  ?" 
"  In  me  see  Plato's  soul,  that  heav'mvard  flies; 
Hia  earth-born  corpse  in  Attic  earth  now  lies."' 


LITERARY  AND    ARTISTIC.  133 

It  was  a  belief  that  the  soul  of  a  great  and  good 
man  was  carried  to  heaven  by  an  eagle. 

AN  EPITAPH  ON  PLATO,  BY  HIS  NAME  op  ARISTOCLES. 

"  Excelling  all  in  modesty  and  worth, 
Godlike  Aristocles  here  lies  in  earth  ; 
If  e'er  'twas  given  to  reach  high  wisdom's  praise, 
'Twas  given  to  him,  nor  did  he  envy  raise." 

The  name  of  Plato  was  given  to  the  philosopher 
from  the  great  breadth  either  of  his  figure,  or  of  his 
brow,  or  of  his  eloquence — it  is  not  certain  which. 

ON  PLATO  AND  ESCULAPIUS. 

"  Plato  and  Esculapius  both  to  Phcobus  owed  their  birth, 
Sent  by  the  god  of  healing  down,  to  succour  men  on 

earth. 

To  cure  the  body's  maladies  was  one  of  these  designed  ; 
The  other  had  the  nobler  charge  of  medicine  for  the 

mind." 

This  epigram  alludes  to  the  fiction  that  Plato,  like 
Esculapius,  was  the  son  of  Apollo,  and  not  of  a  mortal 
father. 

This  is  a  shorter  form  of  the  same  thought : — 

"  Asclepias  once,  and  Plato,  too,  Phoebus  to  mortals  gave, 
That  one  the  body,  one  the  soul,  from  maladies  might 
save." 

ON  EPICTETUS. 

By  Leouidus. 

"  I,  Epictetus,  was  a  slave,  who  now  lie  buried  here, 
A  cripple,  and  as  Irus  poor,  and  to  the  immortals  dear," 


134  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

ON  THE  STOIC  PHILOSOPHY. 

Anonymous. 

"  Ye  Stoic  sages,  from  your  sacred  loaves 
The  studious  mind  this  highest  truth  receives, 
That  Virtue  is  the  soul's  ONE  good,  and  she 
Of  men  and  nations  the  sole  hope  can  be. 
When  fleshly  pleasures  others  make  their  aim, 
One  Muse  alone  will  her  assent  proclaim." 

ON  DIOGENES. 
By  Aiitiphilus. 

"  E'en  brass  grows  old  with  time  ;  but  thy  renown, 
Diogenes,  no  age  can  e'er  live  down. 
Thou  only  didst  a  self-sufficing  way 
And  easy-going  life  to  men  display." 

ON  THE  STUDY  OF  ASTRONOMY. 
By  Ptolemy  :  translation  by  P.  Smyth. 

"  Though  but  the  being  of  a  day, 
When  I  yon  planet's  course  survey 

This  earth  I  then  despise  : 
Near  Jove's  eternal  throne  I  stand, 
And  quaff  from  an  immortal  hand 

The  nectar  of  the  skies." 

ON  HYPATIA,  THE  FEMALE  ASTRONOMER. 
Anonymous. 

"  When  I  behold  thee — when  I  hear  thy  lore, — 
Thy  maiden  presence  humbly  I  adore. 
I  see  in  thee  the  Virgin  of  the  sky, 
The  constellation  shining  there  on  high. 
The  heavens  are  still  thy  business  and  thy  home, 
To  which  thy  lessons  tend,  from  which  they  coine ; 
Noble  Hypatia  !  of  high  speech  the  flower, 
The  lustrous  star  of  wise  instruction's  power." 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  135 

What  follows  may  connect  these  epigrams  upon 
literature  and  philosophy  with  those  that  are  immedi- 
ately to  come,  as  the  subject  of  it  will  show. 

ON  A  STATUE  or  ARISTOTLE. 
Anonymous. 

u  Here,  from  one  mould,  a  statue  we  erect 
To  Aristotle— and  to  Intellect." 


ARTISTIC. 

"We  proceed  now  to  those  epigrams  that  illustrate 
the  history  and  state  of  Art  among  the  Greeks.  These 
form  a  large  proportion  of  the  Anthology,  and  are 
more  particularly  to  be  found  in  the  collection  of 
Planudes. 

The  enormous  destruction  which  in  process  of  time 
has  overtaken  the  works  of  ancient  art,  especially  of 
ancient  paintings,  may  prevent  us  from  recognising 
in  many  epigrams  allusions  to  statues  and  pictures 
which  have  now  perished,  where  the  epigrammatist 
may  not  have  mentioned  the  artist's  name,  or  stated 
explicitly  the  reference  intended.  Yet  the  industry 
of  critics  has  latterly  thrown  a  strong  light  on  those 
subjects ;  and  the  discovery  from  time  to  time  of 
ancient  copies  of  lost  works  of  art,  and  of  mirnatuve 
editions  of  them  in  gems  or  engraved  stones,  has 
facilitated  greatly  the  proper  understanding  of  this 
subject.  We  may  notice  one  or  two  instances  where 
an  obscure  hint  so  given  in  an  epigram  has  been 
explained  by  an  extant  gem,  and  thus  an  additional 


136  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

interest  conferred  on  "both.  Thus  there  is  an  anony- 
mous epigram  in  Planudes  which  may  be  thus  trans- 
lated : — 

"  The  winged  boy  t/ie  winged  thunder  breaks  : 
Thus  Love  o'er  other  fires  precedence  takes." 

Many  passages  in  ancient  writers  mention  the  exist- 
ence of  works  of  art  representing  Cupid  holding  a 
thunderbolt,  and  we  read  in  Plutarch  in  particular 
that  such  a  device  was  exhibited  on  Alcibiades' 
shield.  But  there  is  preserved  an  antique  gem,  of 
which  an  engraving  is  to  be  found  in  Spence's  '  Poly- 
metis,'  Plate  vii.  fig.  3,  where  a  winged  Cupid  is 
shown  in  the  act  of  breaking  a  thunderbolt  across 
his  knee ;  and  it  seems  impossible  to  doubt  that  the 
writer  of  the  epigram  had  seen  or  known  of  a  work  of 
art  containing  such  a  representation.  Another  epi- 
gram in  Planudes  runs  thus — also  anonymous  : — 

"  You  there  who  blow  that  brand,  your  lamp  to  light, 
Light  it  at  me  :  my  soul  is  blazing  quite." 

This  epigram,  and  another  longer,  to  the  same  effect, 
seem  to  point  to  a  sculptured  Cupid  blowing  a  torch 
into  a  blaze, — the  same  perhaps  that  Pliny  mentions 
as  a  statue  by  Lycus,  of  a  boy  blowing  into  a  flame  a 
decaying  fire. 

The  interest  attached  to  these  resemblances  becomes, 
of  course,  all  the  greater  when  the  question  is  as  to 
works  of  art  of  a  nobler  kind.  Indeed,  the  considera- 
tion of  the  connection  between  poetry  and  art,  and  of 
the  mutual  aid  they  have  aiforded  each  other,  as  well 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  137 

as  the  distinctions  that  separate  them,  lead  to  in- 
quiries of  greater  importance  and  of  a  very  attractive 
kind.  Phidias  is  said  to  have  declared  that  he  derived 
his  idea  of  the  Olympian  Jove  from  a  few  lines 
in  Homer ;  while  it  is  possible  that  Virgil  drew, 
though  with  important  modifications,  his  description 
of  Laocoon  and  his  sons  from  some  work  of  art  that 
lie  had  seen,  and  which  thus  would  have  been  the 
original  of  the  group  that  we  now  possess.  If,  how- 
ever, the  artists  copied  from  Virgil  as  the  true  source, 
this  view  is  also  full  of  interest,  both  as  to  the  points 
of  resemblance  and  those  of  diversity  >iu  the  two  re- 
presentations. 

In  treating  of  the  epigrams  as  illustrative  of  art,  it 
is  difficult  to  say  in  what  order  they  should  be  dealt 
with.  The  periods  at  which  the  different  epigram- 
matists lived  is  often  so  uncertain  as  to  prevent  the 
chronology  of  the  authorship  being  taken  as  a  guide;. 
The  best  method  seems  to  be  to  deal  with  the  subjects 
according  to  their  classes,  and  consequently  to  begin 
with  the  most  dignified,  those  that  relate  to  the  gods. 

Among  the  superlative  achievements  of  ancient  art 
must  be  reckoned  the  colossal  statues  of  Minerva  and 
Jupiter  by  Phidias,  one  of  which  stood  in  the  Parthe- 
non at  Athens,  and  the  other  in  the  Temple  of  Jupiter 
at  Olympia.  In  these  works  the  Greek  ideal  of  di- 
vinity was  at  last  carried  to  its  perfection.  At  first  it 
would  appear  that  the  Greeks  were  satisfied  with  put- 
ting up  images  which  partook  more  of  the  nature  of 
symbols  of  the  deity  represented,  than  attempts  at  any 
supposed  likeness ;  but  by  degrees  it  came  to  be  estab- 


138  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

lished  that  the  higher  circle  of  gods  should  be 
exhibited  as  human  forms,  though  transcendently 
more  powerful  and  more  beautiful  than  any  human 
reality.  The  Olympian  Jupiter  of  Phidias,  which 
was  his  last  work,  attained  the  summit  of  this  ex- 
cellence. The  material  was  that  mixture  of  gold  and 
ivory  which  got  the  name  of  Chryselephantine,  and 
in  which  Phidias  delighted  to  work.  And  the  statue 
professed,  as  the  artist  himself  declared,  to  be  founded 
on  the  sublime  passage  in  Homer,  which  describes 
the  approving  nod  of  the  divinity,  thus  imposingly 
but  not  very  accurately  translated  by  Pope  : — 

"  He  spoke,  and  awful  bends  his  sable  brows : 
Shakes  his  ambrosial  curls,  and  gives  the  nod, 
The  stamp  of  fate,  and  sanction  of  the  god." 

The  work  appears  to  have  occupied  Phidias,  who  was 
a  slow  and  elaborate  worker,  for  a  period  of  irom  four 
to  five  years  exclusively  devoted  to  the  task.  A  full 
and  artistic  account  of  the  elaboration  bestowed  by 
him  on  his  Minerva  and  Jupiter  will  be  found  in  an 
article  by  Mr  Story  upon  "  Phidias  and  the  Elgin 
Marbles"  in  'Blackwood's  Magazine'  for  December 
1873. 

Great  as  the  reputation  of  Phidias  must  have  been, 
there  are  not  many  allusions  to  him  in  the  Antholo- 
gies. The  principal  of  these,  perhaps  the  only  direct 
one,  has  reference  apparently  to  the  Olympian  Jupiter, 
and  is  in  these  terms  : — 

"  Either  Jove  came  to  earth  to  show  his  form  to  thee, 
Phidias,  or  thou  to  heaven  hast  gone  the  god  to  see." 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  139 

The  rarity  of  such  allusion  may  be  more  intelligible 
if  we  hold  with  high  authorities,  including  Mr  Story, 
that  Phidias  did  not  himself  work  in  marble,  so  as  to 
make  his  works  more  widely  diffused. 

Here  is  a  short  epigram  by  Julian  upon  an  armed 
statue  of  Minerva  in  Athens.  The  allusion  is  to  the 
contention  said  to  have  existed  between  her  and  Nep- 
tune for  the  sovereignty  of  Athens,  in  which  Minerva 
was  the  conqueror.  The  epigrammatist  remonstrates 
with  the  goddess  for  keeping  on  her  armour  after  she 
had  won  the  victory  : — 

"  Why,  Pallas,  armed  in  Athens  do  you  stand  ? 
Neptune  has  yielded  ;  spare  the  Athenian's  land." 

There  seem  to  have  been  two  statues — one  of  Minerva 
and  one  of  Bacchus — placed  near  each  other  in  some 
temple  or  public  place,  to  which  an  epigrammatist  ad- 
dresses an  inquiry  of  surprise  as  to  the  possible  con- 
nection that  thus  placed  them  in  proximity  : — 

"  Say,  Bacchus,  why  thus  placed  ?  what  can  there  be 

In  common  held  by  Pallas  and  by  thee  ? 

Her  pleasure  is  in  darts  and  battles  :  thine 

In  joyous  feasts  and  draughts  of  rosy  wine." 

"  Stranger,  not  rashly  of  the  gods  thus  speak : 

Our  mutual  likeness  is  not  far  to  seek. 

I,  too,  in  battles  glory — Indians  know 

In  me,  to  ocean's  edge,  a  conquering  foe. 

Mankind  we  both  have  bless'd  ;  the  olive  she 

Has  given,  the  vine's  sweet  clusters  come  from  me. 

Nor  she,  nor  I,  e'er  caused  a  mother's  pains: 

I  from  Jove's  thigh  produced,  she  from  his  brains." 

We  have  been  led  on  somehow  to  pass  over  Juno,  who 


140  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY 

ought  to  have  come  after  her  husband.  The  most 
celebrated  statue  of  her  was  that  by  Polycleitus  at 
Argos,  her  favourite  city,  which  was  considered  little 
if  at  all  inferior  to  the  works  of  Phidias.  But  to  any 
image  of  Juno  there  is  little  reference  in  the  Antho- 
logy. The  most  conspicuous  notice  is  this,  which  ap- 
parently refers  to  the  statue  at  Argos : — 

"  The  Argive  Polycleitus,  who  alone 
Had  sight  of  Juno,  and  that  sight  has  shown, 
What  of  her  beauty  he  could  give,  has  given  : 
Her  unseen  charms  are  kept  for  Jove  in  heaven. 

As  Jupiter  was  the  great  impersonation  of  majesty  and 
power,  so  Juno  was  held  to  embody  all  the  dignity 
of  matronly  excellence,  being  viewed  in  particular 
as  the  patroness  of  marriage,  that  institution  on  which 
civilised  society  is  founded  and  family  affection  in- 
grafted. Perhaps  the  awe  with  which  both  Jupiter 
and  Juno  were  regarded,  and  which  was  doubtless  in- 
creased by  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of  their  most  cele- 
brated statues,  made  of  the  most  precious  materials 
and  of  colossal  magnitude,  may  have  had  some  effect 
in  keeping  at  least  the  lighter  epigrammatists  from 
trespassing  on  this  ground.  To  some  extent,  also,  the 
same  feeling  may  have  operated  to  preserve  Minerva 
from  being  too  familiarly  dealt  with  ;  though  it  will 
afterwards  be  seen  that  some  of  the  poets  did  not 
scruple  to  introduce,  with  considerable  levity,  both 
Juno  and  Minerva  in  connection  with  their  contest 
with  Venus  for  the  prize  of  beauty. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  statues  or  likenesses 


LITERARY  AXD   ARTISTIC.  141 

of  Juno  and  Minerva  were  always  presented  in  a  draped 
form,  though  it  is  possible  that  the  "  white  anus  " 
of  Juno,  of  which  Homer  speaks,  may  have  sometimes 
been  represented  by  sculptors.  It  seems  not  unlikely 
that  until  the  time  of  Praxiteles  the  use  of  drapery 
was  general  with  all  or  most  of  the  goddesses.  It  is 
not  easy  otherwise  to  explain  the  point  of  the  epigrams 
on  the  Cnidian  Venus  of  that  artist,  which  was  ex- 
hibited undraped. 

It  is  said  that  Praxiteles  executed  two  statues  of 
Venus, — one  ordered  by  the  Coans,  entirely  draped  ; 
another  undraped,  purchased  by  the  Cnidians,  and 
placed  in  a  temple  to  the  goddess  as  the  bringer  of 
prosperous  navigation,  in  a  position  open  to  view  from 
the  shore  and  sea  on  all  sides,  in  order  probably  that 
the  sight  of  her  image  might  give  courage  to  the  pass- 
ing navigator,  and  might  calm,  or  be  thought  to  calm, 
the  troubled  deep  within  its  range.  It  is  to  this  Cni- 
dian statue  of  Parian  marble  that  the  well-known  epi- 
gram alludes  which  is  ascribed  to  Plato — 

"  The  Paphian  Queen  to  Cnidos  made  repair 
Across  the  tide,  to  see  her  image  there  : 
Then  looking  up  and  round  the  prospect  wide, 
'  Where  did  Praxiteles  see  me  thus  V  she  cried." 

This  epigram  has  been  expanded  as  well  as  abridged 
by  other  hands,  but  it  is  not  worth  while  to  give  all 
these  varieties,  which  turn  a  good  deal  upon  mere  con- 
ceits ;  as,  for  instance,  that  the  chisel  of  the  sculptor, 
be.ing  of  steel,  did  the  bidding  of  Mars  by  giving  the 
marble  all  the  beauty  it  could.  We  may  give,  how 


142  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOUY. 

ever,  an  epigram  of  a  lighter  kind,  borrowed  from  the 
first ;  and  a  third,  of  which  the  translation  is  partly 
borrowed  from  Merivale.  The  first  runs  thus  : — 

"  Said  Venus  when  Venus  in  Cnidos  she  viewed  : 
Fie  !  where  did  Praxiteles  see  me  thus  nude  ?" 

Venus  speaks  : — 

"  I'm  certain,  save  Paris,  Adonis,  Anchises, 

No  mortal  e'er  saw  me  when  stripped  of  my  clo'es  : 
And  if  this  be  the  case,  then  the  question  arises  : 
Pray,  how  did  Praxiteles  see  what  he  shows?" 

Upon  the  same  statue  the  following  epigram  also 
exists,  by  Evenus  : — 

"  That  Cnidian  work  when  they  beheld, 
And  saw  how  much  its  form  excelled, 
Pallas  and  Juno  both  exclaimed, 
'  The  Phrygian  we  unjustly  blamed.'" 

But  another  epigrammatist,  anonymous,  suggests  with 
regard  to  the  two  statues  of  Pallas  and  Venus,  at 
Athens  and  in  Cnidos,  that  the  spectator  of  each  would 
for  the  time  give  the  preference  to  that  which  was  be- 
fore his  eyes.  "We  give  here  Dr  Wellesley's  translation 
of  the  epigram  referred  to  : — 

"When  foam-sprung  Venus'  charms  divine  you  view, 
You'll  own  the  Phrygian  herdsman's  verdict  true; 
But  when  the  Athenian  Pallas  you  sur'ey, 
'  Oh,  what  a  clown  to  pass  her  by  !'  ycu'll  say." 

There  is  a  discussion  in  some  of  the  old  Greek  authors 
as  to  the  change  of  taste  by  which  the  Graces  came 
ultimately  to  be  represented  in  an  undraped  form, 


LITERARY  AXD   ARTISTIC.  143 

whereas  the  older  artists  all  exhibited  them  as  more  or 
less  clothed.  Perhaps  the  explanation  is  that  when 
Praxiteles,  whose  genius  was  certainly  less  exalted, 
and  perhaps  less  unsensual,  than  that  of  his  great  pre- 
decessors, ventured  to  represent  Venus  herself  as  un- 
clothed, the  Graces,  who  were  her  handmaids,  might 
be  allowed  to  follow  her  example.  That  in  older  works 
of  art  they  were  usually  draped  is  certain  from  several 
authorities,  and  is  illustrated  by  an  old  epigram,  said 
to  be  on  a  bath  at  Smyrna,  of  uncertain  authorship, 
though  attributed  by  some  to  Leontius.  Wo  give  Dr 
Wellesley's  translation  : — 

"  While  the  Graces  were  taking  a  bath  here  one  day, 
Little  Love  with  their  god  (less- ship's  clothes  made  away 
Then  took  to  his  heels,  and  here  left  them  all  bare, 
Ashamed  out  of  doors  to  be  seen  as  they  were." 

In  rivalry  with  the  Cnulian  Venus  of  Praxiteles 
may  be  ranked  the  equally  celebrated  Venus  Anadyo- 
mene  of  Apellcs.  There  are  several  epigrams  on  this 
subject,  but  of  these  two  are  conspicuous,  one  by  Le- 
onidas  of  Tarentum,  and  one  by  Antipater  of  Sidon. 
This  is  by  Leonidas  : — 

"  As  Venus  from  her  mother's  bosom  rose 
(Her  beauty  with  the  murmuring  sea-foam  glows), 
Apelles  caught  and  fixed  each  heavenly  charm  ; 
No  picture,  but  the  life,  sincere  and  warm. 
See  how  those  finger-tips  her  tresses  wring  ! 
See  how  those  eyes  a  calm-like  radiance  fling ! 
That  quince-formed  breast  reveals  her  in  her  prime, 
Of  love  and  soft  desire  the  happy  time. 
Athene  and  Jove's  consort  both  avow — 
'0  Jove  !  we  own  that  we  are  vanquished  now.'" 


144  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

This  is  by  Anti pater,  borrowed,  as  he  often  does, 
from  Leonidas.  It  chiefly  deserves  notice  from  the 
epithet  Anadyomene  ("emerging")  being  introduced: — 

"  Venus,  emerging  from  her  parent  sea, 

A  pelles'  graphic  skill  does  here  portray  : 
She  wrings  her  hair,  while  round  the  bright  drops  flee, 

And  presses  from  her  locks  the  foamy  spray. 
Pallas  and  Juno  now  their  claims  give  o'er, 
And  say,  '  In  beauty  we  contend  no  more.'  " 

The  reputed  familiarity  of  Venus  and  Mars  leads 
the  epigrammatists  sometimes  to  suppose  her  ac- 
coutred in  his  armour.  The  common  books  of  gems 
show  examples  of  this  fancy ;  and  from  these  or 
larger  works  of  art  on  the  subject  the  poets  probably 
took  the  hint.  This  epigram  is  by  Leonidas  of  Alex- 
andria, the  translation  partly  from  Ogle  (p.  12)  : — 

"  These  arms  of  Mars,  why,  Venus,  do  you  wear  ? 
Why  the  unwieldy  weight  for  nothing  bear  ? 
The  god  himself  yields  to  your  naked  charms ; 
To  conquer  men,  what  need  of  other  amis  I " 

Conceits  are  to  be  found  in  the  epigrams  as  to  the 
power  of  Venus,  if  she  were  armed,  to  conquer  still 
more  easily  those  with  whom  she  had  contended  when 
without  armour  ;  but  Prior  has  well  urged,  what  other 
poets  had  suggested,  that  the  power  of  Venus  lies  truly 
in  her  not  being  armed. 

Cupid  has  had  almost  enough  of  space  bestowed 
upon  him  in  a  previous  chapter,  but  we  may  give  one 
or  two  more  epigrams  relating  to  him. 

Several   gems   represent   Cupid,  or  a  plurality   of 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  145 

Cupids,  making  free  with  the  armour  or  weapons  of 
their  betters.  Several  of  these  urchins  are  in  one 
engraved  stone  seen  combining  to  carry  Hercules's 
club.  Such  images  may  have  suggested  the  epigrams 
on  the  Loves  appropriating  the  "attributes"  of  the 
gods  in  Olympus.  This  is  a  specimen ;  it  is  by 
Secundus  : — 

"  See  these  all-plundering  Loves!     With  boyish  glee 
On  their  stout  backs  they  don  heaven's  panoply : 
Bacchus'  own  drums  and  tliyrse :  Jove's  thunderous  fire : 
The  shield  of  Ares,  and  his  dread  attire: 
Apollo's  darts,  Poseidon's  three-toothed  spear, 
And  the  huge  club  Alcides  used  to  rear. 
What  can  men  do,  when  Cupid  conquers  heaven, 
And  the  gods'  armour  is  to  Venus  given  ?•" 

Here  is  an  epigram  by  Marcus  Argentarius,  obvi- 
ously suggested  by  some  engraving  : — 

"  Love,  the  inevitable,  here  appears, 

Graved  on  a  seal,  reining  the  lion's  might: 
One  hand  the  whip,  and  one  the  bridle  bears, 

To  iii-ge  and  guide  :  here  grace  and  force  unite. 
I  fear  the  murderer  :  he  who  could  subdue 
This  savage  beast,  must  rule  tame  mortals  too." 

It  is  said  that  such  a  gem  was  at  one  time  in  the 
Orleans  collection.  In  Spence's  'Polymetis  '  (Plate  vii.) 
there  is  a  representation  of  a  Cupid  riding  on  a  lion 
and  playing  on  the  harp. 

On  Apollo  there  are  not  many  direct  epigrams, 
though  he  is  celebrated  in  hymns  and  songs,  which 
lie  beyond  our  province.  One  epigram  deserves  to  be 
inserted,  as  it  refers  to  a  celebrated  bronze  figure  of 

A.  c.  vol.  xx.  K 


146  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

him  by  Onatas.  The  epigram  is  a  little  obscure,  and 
begins  with  a  rather  singular  appellation  applied  to 
the  god  as  an  "ox-boy;"  but  the  idea  of  ox-like  dimen- 
sions seems  to  have  presented  to  the  Greek  mind 
mainly  the  conception  of  full  size,  without  any  tinge 
of  coarseness — as,  for  example,  in  the  case  of  the 
"ox-eyed"  Juno.  The  epigram  is  by  Antipater  of 
Thessalonica : — 

"  Apollo  here  appears,  a  well-grown  boy  ; 
Onatas'  work  in  brass  ;  a  pride  and  joy 
To  Jove  and  Leto  :  proof  that  not  in  vain  \ 

Jove  loved  her  ;  for  by  her  we  see  again 
The  power  that  in  Jove's  eyes  and  forehead  reign.  J 
Nor  should  this  work  give  pain  to  Juno's  heart ; 
Here  Elithia  crowns  Onatas'  art." 

The  epigrams  referring  to  Diana  are  more  numerous. 
We  shall  quote  one  or  two  of  them.  This  is  on  a 
statue,  by  Diotimus  : — 

"  I  am  Diana,  worthy  of  the  name  : 
My  sire,  none  else  than  Jove,  these  looks  proclaim. 
Confess,  such  maiden  vigour  here  is  found, 
All  earth's  too  narrow  for  my  hunting-ground." 

This,  which  is  anonymous,  is  supposed  to  refer  to  a 
picture : — 

"  Where,  Artemis,  thy  bow,  thy  quiver,  too, 
Around  thy  neck,  and  the  strong  Cretan  shoe  ; 
The  gold  that  clasps  thy  robe,  thy  purple  dress 
That  shows  thy  knee  in  its  full  loveliness  ? " 
"  Those  for  the  chase  I  wear  ;  but  now  not  so : 
To  meet  men's  offerings,  it  is  thus  I  go." 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  147 

DIANA'S  FAVOUR  TO  LITTLE  HOUNDS. 

"  When  little  Calathine  was  brought  to  bed 
Of  pups,  Diana  well  her  labour  sped. 
Not  only  human  mothers  here  find  grace  ; 
She  aids  her  canine  comrades  of  the  chase." 

But  the  most  remarkable  references  to  Apollo  and 
Diana  in  the  Anthology  have  relation  to  the  story  of 
Niobe,  which  will  afterwards  receive  special  consider- 
ation. 

Bacchus  has  been  already  referred  to  as  a  subject 
of  art,  and  we  shall  now  give  some  more  allusions  to 
him. 

UPON  A  STATUE  OF  ARIADNE. 

Anonymous. 

"No  mortal  sculptor,  liai-clius'  self, 
Thy  lover,  on  this  rocky  sin-It' 
Saw  thee  reclined,  so  heavenly  fair, 
And  then  lor  ever  fixed  tliee  there." 

The  following  epigram  by  Evenus  refers  to  a  sub- 
ject already  noticed.  Bland  thus  explains  it : — 
"  The  proportion  of  water  with  which  the  more 
moderate  among  the  Grecian  sages  recommended  that 
wine  should  be  diluted  was  as  three  parts  in  four — a 
recommendation  here  ingeniously  typified  by  linking 
Bacchus  with  three  water-nymphs  in  the  dance." 
The  translation  wo  give  is  by  the  younger  Merivale, 
a  little  altered  : — 

"  Water  your  wine  to  keep  in  moderation, 
There's  grief  or  madness  in  a  strong  potation. 
For  always  it  is  Bacchus'  highest  pleasure 
To  move  with  Naiads  three  in  mingled  measure. 


148  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Tis  there  you'll  find  him  famous  company 

For  sports  and  loves  and  decent  jollity  ; 

But,  when  alone,  avoid  his  fiery  breath, 

He  breathes  not  love — but  sleep,  not  far  from  death." 

The  second  couplet  would  more  nearly  resemble  the 
original  thus  : — 

"  For  Bacchus  still  delights,  where  three  Nymphs  mingle, 
To  make  a  fourth,  instead  of  keeping  single." 

Here  is  an  epigram,  said  to  be  Plato's,  upon  one  of 
Bacchus's  attendants,  a  satyr,  who,  however,  has  taken 
the  temperance  pledge,  and  whose  image  as  a  water- 
bearer  had  been  set  up  near  a  sleeping  Cupid.  The 
translation  is  from  Bland,  a  little  altered  : — 

"  I  from  Dsedalean  hands  my  birth  derive, 
And  so  this  solid  stone  was  taught  to  live. 
A  Satyr,  once  enrolled  in  Bacchus'  band, 
But  now  a  comrade  of  the  Nymphs  I  stand. 
In  purple  wine  denied  to  revel  more, 
Sweet  draughts  of  water  from  my  urn  I  pour. 
But,  stranger,  softly  tread,  lest  any  sound 
Awake  yon  boy,  in  rosy  slumbers  bound." 

Hermes  or  Mercury  seems  next  to  claim  attention, 
and  the  variety  of  characters  which,  this  deity  ex- 
hibited affords  ample  materials  for  reference  to  him. 
The  most  general  idea  that  pervades  hi.-  functions 
seems  to  be  that  of  intercourse  or  communication.  He 
was  the  patron  of  travellers,  and  presided  over  streets 
and  highways.  He  was  the  messenger  of  the  gods,  and 
conveyed  tidings  from  heaven  to  earth.  He  was  the 
Soul-escorter  from  this  world  to  the  next ;  he  facili- 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  149 

tated  communication  among  men  by  every  means, — 
by  language,  by  letters,  and  by  merchandise.  In  these 
qualities  lay  that  resemblance  to  the  Teutonic  deity, 
Odin  or  Woden,  which  led  the  Romans  to  consider 
that  the  Germans  worshipped  Mercury.  A  trace  of 
that  supposed  connection  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the 
names  given  by  the  English  and  French  to  the  middle 
day  of  the  week. 

One  mode  of  communication  or  interchange  practised 
and  protected  by  Mercury  was  more  objectionable  than 
others.  He  was  the  god  of  thieves,  and  an  adept  in  that 
irregular  means  of  transferring  property.  He  would 
no  doubt  have  been  pleased  with  the  euphemism  of 
Shakespeare's  Pistol — "  Convey,  the  wise  it  call."  Ho 
patronised  other  arts,  such  as  music  and  gymnastics  ; 
and  these,  too,  were  connected  with  social  intercourse. 
His  humblest  office,  probably,  was  that  of  a  milestone, 
in  which  form  he  frequently  figured.  This  epigram 
is  an  example, — it  is  anonymous: — 

"  To  Mercury  pome  travellers  set  up  Me, 
A  heap  of  stones  :  small  honour  that  could  be. 
So,  as  a  like  return,  lie  bids  me  tell — 
'Tis  hence  seven  stadia  to  the  she-goat's  well." 

The  next  gives  him  a  better  position  and  more 
beneficent  duties  : — 

"  Me,  Hermes,  near  this  breezy  garden  see  ! 

On  the  highway  and  by  the  grey  sea-shore  ; 
To  wearied  men  a  resting-place  to  be, 

While  cooling  waters  from  the  fresh  founts  pour." 


150  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

ON  A  STATUE  OF  HERMES,  BY  SCOPAS. 

Anonymous. 

"  Good  friend,  don't  think  that  here  you  see 
A  common  Mercury  in  me ; 
A  nobler  deity  I  stand  ; 
The  workmanship  of  Scopas'  hand." 

As  Mercury  was  often  set  up  over  fields  and  gardens 
to  protect  them  from  pillage,  this  was  a  delicate  position 
for  one  of  his  principles,  which  is  pretty  well  brought 
out  in  this  epigram : — 

THE  PASSENGER  AND  MERCURY. 

"This  cabbage,  Hermes,  may  I  clutch?" 
"  No,  passenger,  you  must  not  touch." 
"  So  stingy  1 "     "  No,  but  law  commands 
From  others'  goods  to  keep  your  hands." 
"  Ah,  well !  but  I  can  scarce  believe 
Tis  Hennes  tells  me — not  to  thieve." 

Our  next  epigram  shows  the  same  god  as  suffering 
from  his  own  pupils  and  principles.  It  is  by  Lucillius, 
the  translation  by  Cow  per: — 

"  When  Aulus,  the  nocturnal  thief,  made  prize 
Of  Hermes,  swift-winged  envoy  of  the  skies,  — 
Hermes,  Arcadia's  king,  the  thief  divine, 
Who  when  an  infant  stole  Apollo's  kine, 
And  whom,  as  arbiter  and  overseer 
Of  our  gymnastic  sports,  we  planted  here  ; — 
'  Hermes,'  he  cried,  '  you  meet  no  new  disaster  ; 
Ofttimes  the  pupil  goes  beyond  his  master.' " 

UPON  THE  STATUE  OF  A  BEARDLESS  MERCURY  SET  UP 

NEAR  A  BOYS'  RACE-COURSE. 

"  Who  set  thee,  beardless  Hermes,  here,  this  starting-post 
to  grace  I" 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC.  151 

"  Hermogenes."     "  Of  whom  the  son  1 "    "  Of  Daimoneus." 

"What  place?" 
"  Of  Antioch."     "  Why  this  honour  done  ? "    "  My  needful 

help  he  found 
In  running."      "  Where  ? "      "  9n  Isthmian  Loth  and  on 

Nemean  ground." 
"He  ran?"     "  And  came  in  first."     "O'er  whom?"    "O'er 

boys  in  number  nine  ; 
And  then  he  flew  as  if  his  feet  had  wings  as  good  as  mine." 

It  would  be  tedious  to  go  over  all  the  deities  to 
whom  the  epigrams  may  refer,  or  to  the  statues  or  paint- 
ings representing  them.  Enough  has  perhaps  been 
said  to  awaken  interest  in  the  subject ;  and  it  will  be 
remembered  that  tho  object  of  these  observations  is  not 
to  give  a  history  of  art  or  a  manual  of  mythology,  but 
to  show  by  striking  examples  the  mutual  connection  of 
art  and  this  form  of  poetry.  We  may  dismiss  the 
chapter  of  the  gods  by  a  reference  to  two  interesting 
subjects.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  Venus  as 
the  promoter  of  prosperous  navigation.  In  that  char- 
acter she  had  other  names,  or  had  the  aid  of  assistant 
goddesses  that  did  her  bidding.  An  epigram  of 
Aildauis  expressly  refers  to  and  describes  an  engraved 
stone  by  Tryphon,  representing  Galene,  tho  goddess  of 
calm,  one  of  those  propitious  deities,  and  it  is  believed 
that  extant  gems  exhibit  the  same  subject: — 

"  An  Indian  beryl,  Tryphon  won  me  o'er 
To  spread  into  a  calm  from  shore  to  shore. 
Galene's  name  and  form  he  bade  me  bear, 
And  his  soft  hands  let  flow  my  lengthening  hair. 
See  how  my  kisses  soothe  the  watery  deep, 
And  how  my  bosom  lulls  the  waves  to  sleep  ! 


152  TIIE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Did  not  the  envious  stone  my  will  confine, 
You'd  see  me  quickly  floating  on  the  brine." 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  minor  Greek 
deities  was  Nemesis,  who  seems  scarcely  to  be  repre- 
sented by  any  Roman  equivalent,  unless  we  call  her 
Divine  Vengeance.  In  superstitious  minds  among  the 
Greeks  the  idea  appears  to  have  existed  that  the  gods 
were  envious  of  the  good  fortune  of  men,  and  on  that 
account  visited  them  with  affliction  ;  and  we  often 
find  the  feeling  of  envy  ascribed  to  Death  or  Hades  in 
currying  off  the  young  and  lovely.  But  Nemesis,  we 
would  fain  think,  had  a  higher  origin  and  position  in 
the  estimation  of  pious  and  reverential  men.  It  was 
her  function  to  prescribe  moderation  in  all  things,  and 
to  check  all  arrogance  or  presumption,  and  with  thut 
view  to  remind  men  of  the  mutability  of  events,  and 
the  instability  of  mortal  possessions.  Nemesis  is  not 
merely  the  avenger  of  actual  crime,  but  the  represser  of 
inordinate  thoughts  and  pretensions  of  all  kinds.  Such 
an  influence  is  to  be  found  in  all  religious  systems, 
and  is  experienced  by  all  reflecting  men.  The  story 
of  Polycrates's  ring  presents  a  pagan  illustration  of  it. 
The  simple  and  amiable  wife  of  Marmontel  had  some- 
thing of  that  feeling :  "'Nous  sommes  trop  heureux,'  me 
disait  ma  femme  ;  '  il  nous  arrivera  quelque  malheur.'  " 

Two  epigrams  may  here  be  given  describing  Nem- 
esis by  her  usual  accompaniments — a  measuring  rule, 
or  her  own  fore-arm  raised,  and  a  bridle. 

This  is  by  an  anonymous  writer : — 

u  Nemesis  checks,  with  cubit-rule  and  bridle, 
Immoderate  deeds,  and  boastings  rash  and  idle." 


L1TKRARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  153 

Tliis  also  is  anonymous ;  it  may  be  thus  translated  : — 

"  I,  Nemesis,  this  cubit  hold  ;  you  ask  the  reason  why  1 
1  Let  nothing  in  excess  be  done ;'  with  this  let  all  comply." 

Mr  King,  in  his  '  Handbook'  (p.  3G7),  gives  us  the 
engraving  of  a  gem  representing  the  Twin  Nemeses, 
patronesses  of  Smyrna.  "  One  holds  a  bridle,  the  other 
a  measuring  wand,  and  raises  at  the  same  time  her 
fore-arm  or  cubitus,  thus  typifying  both  self-restraint 
and  moderation."  In  another  of  Mr  King's  bonks 
(his  illustrations  of  Mr  Munro's  '  Horace  '),  a  different 
gem  is  exhibited,  in  which  Nemesis  is  represented 
without  the  bridle,  but  merely  with  her  fore-arm  up- 
lifted, and  with  an  ash-branch  in  her  hand,  while  iit-r 
brow  is  bent  downwards  under  the  bosom  of  her  robe. 

It  was  at  one  time  supposed  that  Phidias  was  either 
the  sculptor  or  had  superintended  the  formation  of  a 
celebrated  statue  of  Nemesis  placed  in  the  temple  of 
that  deity  at  Rhamnus,  and  connected  in  some  way 
with  the  battle  of  Marathon.  This  statue  has  been  the 
subject  of  a  good  deal  of  apocryphal  or  doubtfvil  tradi- 
tion, referred  to  by  Mr  King  in  the  '  Illustrated  Horace.' 
It  was  said  that  the  Persians,  when  they  invaded 
( !  recce  before  the  battle  of  Marathon,  had  brought  from 
the  island  of  Paros,  which  they  passed  in  their  voyage, 
•A  block  of  marble  for  a  trophy  to  be  erected  in  Greece 
in  honour  of  their  anticipated  victories  ;  but  that  when 
they  were  defeated  at  Marathon,  the  Greeks  had  seized 
the  stone,  and  converted  it  into  a  statue  of  Nemesis,  to 
be  erected  in  her  temple  at  Rhamnus,  which  is  near 
Marathon.  The  following  epigram  is  extant  in  com- 


154  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

memoration  of  this   supposed  incident, — a  tempting 
subject  for  an  epigrammatist: — 

"  ME  Persians  brought  a  trophy  here  to  be 
Of  victory  ;  now  a  Nemesis  they  see. 
Nay,  both  ;  to  Greece  a  trophy  I  shall  stand, 
To  Persia,  proof  of  Nemesis'  high  hand." 

It  is  now  suspected,  however,  that  this  tradition  is 
what  Mr  Story  calls  it,  a  pure  "  myth ;"  and  this  be- 
lief would  be  confirmed  if  we  suppose  that  the  Rham- 
nusian  statue  in  the  Elgin  room  of  the  British  Museum 
was  this  Nemesis ;  for  it  seems  to  be  certain,  "  from 
the  recent  examination  of  intelligent  judges,  that  this 
celebrated  statue  was  not  of  Parian  but  of  Pentelic 
marble,"  which  is  quite  distinguishable  from  Parian. 
Another  question  remains, — Whether  the  Rharnnusian 
statue  was  by  Phidias  or  not  1  as  to  which  the  prepon- 
derance of  evidence  seems  to  be  that  it  was  the  work  of 
his  pupil  and  friend  Agoracritos,  whose  name  was  put 
as  the  maker  of  it  on  the  branch  of  an  ash-tree  held 
in  the  hand  of  the  goddess.  A  story  was  also  told  of 
Agoracritos  having  first  made  a  statue  of  Venus,  and 
that  having  failed  to  obtain  the  prize  for  it,  the  prefer- 
ence being  given  to  another  sculptor,  he  was  so  indig- 
nant that,  after  making  certain  alterations,  he  sold  it  to 
the  people  of  Ehamnus  as  a  Nemesis — which  is  also 
probably  a  myth. 

On  the  supposition  of  the  intended  Persian  trophy 
being  converted  by  the  Greeks  into  a  Nemesis,  Dr 
"Wellesley,  in  his  Polyglot  Anthology,  refers  to  a  parallel 
incident  in  the  conversion  of  a  stone  of  Buonaparte's 
column,  intended  to  commemorate  the  successful  in- 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC.  155 

» 

vasion  of  England,  being  alterwards  used  to  record  the 
restoration  of  the  Bourbons, — and  on  that  subject  he 
gives  us  the  following  epigram  : — 

"  Frenchmen,  who  brought  this  marble  block  to  stand 
A  trophy  of  the  invasion  of  yon  land, 
Behold  !  it  marks  a  Bourbon's  restoration, 
And  tells  that  you  are  the  invaded  nation." 

Something  of  the  same  sort  happened  to  a  French 
pillar  at  Coblentz  which  the  Eussians  adopted. 

The  only  result  that  we  feel  assured  of  in  connection 
with  the  Nemesis  at  Khamnus  seems  to  be,  that  soon 
after  the  battle  of  Marathon,  and  probably  out  of  the 
Persian  spoils,  which  were  of  great  value,  a  new 
statue  of  that  goddess  was  erected  at  her  favourite 
seat  in  Greece,  where  it  long  remained. 

Nemesis  seems  to  have  been  treated  as  a  real  goddess  ; 
but  there  were  impersonations  of  abstract  powers  which 
scarcely  attained  that  rank,  yet  were  made  the  subject 
of  artistic  representation,  and  are  referred  to  in  the 
epigrams  accordingly.  One  of  the  most  striking  of 
these  was  Opportunity,  of  which  Lysippus  made  a  very 
remarkable  statue,  the  subject  of  a  clever  epigram  by 
Posidippus,  of  which  a  translation  shall  now  be  given  : 

"The   sculptor  whence?"      "From   Sicyon."      "Who?" 

"  Lysippus  is  his  name." 
"  And  you  ? "     "  I'm  Opportunity,  that  all  things  rule  and 

tame." 
'*  On   tiptoe  why  ? "     "I  always   run."      "  Why  winglets 

on  your  feet — 
And  double  too?"     "Before  the  wind  I  fly  with  progress 

fleet." 


156  THE  GREEK  ANTUOLOGY. 

"  Why  is  a  razor  in  your  hand  ?"     "  To  teach  men  this  to 

know, 

That  sharper  than  a  razor's  edge  the  times  for  action  grow." 
"  Why  this  lock  on  your  forehead  1 "  "  That  you  all  may 

seize  me  there." 

"  And  why  then  is  your  occiput  so  very  bald  and  bare  ? " 
"  That  none  who  once  have  let  me  pass  may  ever  have  the 

power 

To  pull  me  back,  and  bring  again  the  once-neglected  hour." 
"  Why  did  the  artist  fashion  you  ?  "  "  For  your  instruction, 

friend, 
And  placed  me  in  this  vestibule  these  lessons  to  commend." 

This  epigram  was  translated  by  Ausonius,  who,  from 
error  or  design,  stated  the  artist  of  the  statue  to  lie 
Phidias, — an  error  which  leads  one  to  suspect  that  lie 
was  not  a  very  good  judge  of  art,  or  well  acquainted 
with  its  history. 

We  proceed  next  to  those  epigrams  that  relate  to 
demigods  and  heroes,  with  their  images.  Of  these 
Hercules  may  be  considered  the  first  and  greatest. 
The  myths  of  this  deity  present  some  singular  fea- 
tures. The  radical  idea  impersonates  the  perfection 
of  bodily  strength,  and  thus  completes  the  cycle  of 
artistic  development  in  the  human  form,  which  had 
already  comprised  Jupiter  as  the  emblem  of  majesty, 
Apollo  of  manly  beauty,  Hermes  of  activity  and  agil- 
ity. But  the  bulky  strength  of  Hercules  is  at  the 
same  time  accompanied  by  a  less  perfect  intellectual 
organisation.  Some  of  the  philosophical  teachers,  and 
in  particular  Prodicus,  in  his  well-known  and  very 
beautiful  apologue,  represents  him  as  deliberately  mak- 
ing his  choice,  at  his  entry  upon  active  life,  between 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  157 

the  rival  invitations  of  Virtue  and  Pleasure  ;  but  t!fte 
popular  notion  encroaches  upoti  this  ideal,  and  shows 
him  always,  indeed,  as  a  redresser  of  wrongs  and  an 
abater  of  nuisances,  but  also  as  not  unfrequently 
seduced  into  some  of  the  vices  to  which  corporeal 
strength  is  occasionally  subject,  such  as  gluttony  and 
drunkenness,  and  facility  under  female  influence.  Ko 
character  is  oftener  chosen  as  the  subject  both  of  artistic 
arid  of  epigrammatic  representation  than  this  hero  in 
the  various  phases  of  his  development.  His  first 
achievement  in  strangling  the  serpents  sent  against 
him  by  Juno  is  seen  on  several  gems,  of  which  two 
will  be  found  in  Spence's  book.  The  following  epi- 
gram on  that  subject  is  by  an  unknown  author  : — 

"Crush,  Hercules,  with  all  that  infant  strength, 
Those  dragon  folds,  those  throats  of  giant  length  : 
Strive  to  appease  even  now  the  fury  wild 
Of  Juno  ;  learn  to  labour,  yet  a  child. 
No  brazen  cup  or  caldron  is  the  prize, 
But  the  bright  road  that  leads  to  yonder  skies." 

Spence's  book  gives  well-known  engravings  forming 
a  complete  series  of  Hercules's  twelve  labours,  and 
there  are  several  epigrams  that  enumerate  them.  We 
insert  one  by  Philippufi  as  a  specimen  : — 

"  The  Nemean  monster,  and  the  Hydra  dire 
I  quelled  :  the  Bull,  the  Boar,  I  saw  expire 
Under  my  hands  ;  I  seized  the  queenly  Zone, 
And  Diomede's  fierce  steeds  I  made  my  own. 
I  plucked  the  golden  Apples  :  Geryon  slew  : 
And  what  I  could  achieve  Augeas  knew  : 
The  Hind  I  caught  :  the  vile  Birds  ceased  their  flight : 
Cerberus  I  upwards  dragged;  and  gained  Olympus' height." 


158  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

*  This  special  epigram  on  his  combat  with  the  lion, 
by  Damagetus,  is  believed  to  refer  to  a  statue  of  Her- 
cules while  engaged  in  that  struggle,  which  stood  in 
Home  in  the  time  of  Ovid,  and  which  is  thought  to 
have  been  afterwards  removed  to  Byzantium,  and  much 
admired  there : — 

"  The  Nemean  Lion  and  the  Argive  guest, — 
Of  wild  beasts  and  of  demigods  the  best, — 
Engage  in  combat,  each  with  scowling  eye, 
To  solve  the  issue,  who  shall  live  or  die. 
Jove,  let  the  Argive  man  the  victor  be, 
That  Nemea  safe  again  to  traverse  we  may  see." 

Another  special  epigram  on  his  killing  the  Mrena 
lian  Hind,  by  an  anonymous  author,  describes  accurately 
the  attitude  depicted  in  all  the  artistic  representations 
of  that  achievement : — 

"  How  shall  my  gazing  eyes  and  thoughtful  mind 
Enough  admire  the  Hero  and  the  Hind? 
On  the  beast's  loins  his  knee  is  firmly  set, 
While  on  her  branching  horns  his  hands  have  met. 
She,  breathing  heavily  with  lips  apart, 
Shows  by  her  tongue  the  pressure  at  her  heart. 
Rejoice,  Alcides  ;  we  in  her  behold 
Not  the  horns  only,  but  the  whole  of  gold." 

ON  A  STATUE  OF  HERCULES  AND  ANTAEUS. 

The  translation  by  Hay. 

"  Who  hath  impressed  on  brass  that  mournful  air 

Of  one  who  struggles  'gainst  Alcides'  might  ? 

Instinct  with  life,  there  force  and  fierce  despair 

Fill  us  with  mingled  pity  and  affright. 
Under  Alcides'  grasp  Antaeus  see, 
Writhing  and  groaning  in  his  agony." 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  159 

"We  have  here  rather  a  different  picture  of  the  youth 
who  had  made  the  path  of  virtue  his  choice  : — 

HERCULES  IN  A  STATE  OF  EBRIETY. 

"  This,  the  all-conquering  hero,  brave  and  strong, 

For  his  twelve  labours  famed  in  poets'  song, 

Heavy  with  drink,  now  staggers  in  his  gait, 

Subdued  by  Bacchus  to  this  helpless  state." 

We  formerly  had  an  epigram  assimilating  the  rather 
incongruous  characters  of  Minerva  and  Bacchus.  Hero 
there  is  one  of  the  same  nature,  suggested  by  the  asso- 
ciated statues  of  Bacchus  and  Hercules  : — 

"  Both  Thebans,  warriors  both,  and  sons  of  Jove  : 
That  Thyrsus,  and  this  Club,  our  terror  move  : 
Of  like  extent  their  toils :  their  garbs  akin, 
Clad  in  the  faun's  or  in  the  lion's  skin  ; 
One  loves  the  cymbals,  one  the  rattle's  din. 
Juno  to  both  was  hostile,  but  each  came 
From  earth  to  heaven  by  paths  that  led  through  flame." 

Bacchus  used  the  cymbals  in  his  Indian  conquests  ; 
Hercules  the  rattle  in  one  of  his  labours,  that  of 
frightening  away  the  Stymphalides  :  Bacchus  was  dei- 
fied through  the  fate  of  his  mother  Semele  ;  Hercules 
ascended  to  heaven  from  his  great  funeral  pyre. 

In  the  next  epigram  we  have  Hercules  contrasted 
with  another  god,  Mercury,  in  their  character  of 
guardians  of  the  shepherds'  flocks  : — 

"  Ye  shepherds,  Hermes  can  be  won  with  ease  ; 
A  little  milk  or  honey's  sure  to  please : 
Not  so  Alcides  ;  he  demands  a  ram, 
All  to  himself,  or  at  the  least  a  lamb. 
What  though  he  checks  the  wolves  ?  'tis  nought  to  me 
Which  of  them  eats  my  sheep,  the  wolf  or  he." 


160  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

There  is  a  paraphrase  by  Prior  of  the  latter  part  of 
this  epigram,  in  which  the  shepherd  positively  refuses 
to  pay  "black-mail"  to  Hercules  for  protecting  him 
against  robbery  : — 

"  When  hungry  wolves  had  trespass'd  on  the  fold, 
And  the  robbed  shepherd  his  sad  story  told  ; 
'  Call  in  Alcides,'  said  a  crafty  priest ; 
. 4  Give  him  one  half,  and  he'll  secure  the  rest.' 
*  No  ! '    said  the  shepherd  ;  '  if  the  Fates  decree, 
By  ravaging  my  flock  to  ruin  me, 
To  their  commands  I  willingly  resign, — 
Power  is  their  character,  and  patience  mine  ; 
Though,  troth,  to  me  there  seems  but  little  odds 
Who  prove  the  greatest  robbers,  wolves  or  gods ! ' " 

Hercules  had  always  a  character  for  voracity,  and  no 
doubt  needed  large  supplies  of  food  to  support  that 
bulky  frame,  such  as  the  Farnese  Hercules  may  still 
show  us.  In  another  epigram  Hermes  complains  of 
not  getting  his  fair  share  of  the  offerings  made  jointly 
to  him  and  Hercules,  as  associated  together  in  watching 
the  boundaries  between  two  estates  or  territories: — 

"  Ye  friends  who  pass  this  way,  whether  you  come 
From  town  or  country,  whichsoe'er  your  home, 
Here  we  two  gods,  to  guard  these  marches  set, 
I  Mercury,  he  Hercules,  are  met. 
Both  willing  to  oblige  :  but  our  reward 
Is  far  from  equal  for  thus  mounting  guard. 
My  pears,  my  figs,  I  see  him  still  devour  : 
He  does  not  leave  me  even  the  stale  or  sour. 
I  hate  this  partnership !  what  gifts  you  bear, 
Bring  them  in  portions,  giving  each  his  share,  ; 
And  say,  '  Here,  Hercules,'  and  '  Hermes,  here,' 
And  thus  our  feud  at  last  may  disappear." 


LITERARY  AND    ARTISTIC.,  161 

Hercules  was  a  favourite  subject  of  representation 
with  the  eminent  sculptor  Lysippus,  who  among  other 
honours  had  the  monopoly  of  making  statues  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great.  A  statue  of  Hercules  by  Lysippus 
exhibited  him  in  a  depressed  state,  apparently  from 
love,  and  to  this  the  following  epigram  by  Geminus  is 
considered  to  allude  : — 

ON  A  BRONZE  STATUE,  BY  LYSIPPUS,  OP  HERCULES 
DEPRESSED. 

"  Whore,  Hercules,  thy  club,  thy  lion's  skin, 
Tliy  bow,  thy  quiver,  with  its  darts  within 
AVhr.re  thy  proud  look  I  why  di<l  Lvsippus'  art 
Such  pain,  such  sadness,  to  the  bronze  impart  1 
Stripped  of  thine  anus  thou  griev'st :  who  used  theeso? 
The  winged  Love,  the  one  resistless  foe." 

Theseus  is  another  hero  of  illustrious  name.  He  is 
said  to  have  followed  in  Hercules's  footsteps,  though 
he  was  not  deified  so  authentically  as  his  prototype. 
There  is  an  epigram  upon  a  statue  said  to  have  repre- 
sented his  combat  with  the  Marathonian  bull.  I'.ut 
there  have  been  found  several  gems,  and  a  remark- 
able mosaic,  representing  undoubtedly  the  combat  of 
Theseus  with  the  Minotaur;  and  it  is  not  inipossiMu 
that  the  epigram  in  question  relates  to  that  subject. 
It  is  anonymous  : — 

• 

"  A  miracle  of  art  !  this  deadly  fight : 
The  man  bears  down  the  bull  with  matchless  might. 
With  knee  upon  his  foe  his  hands  he  lays, 
One  on  the  nostrils,  one  the  horn  to  raise : 

A.  C.  VOl.  XX.  L 


162  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

He  twists  the  neck-joints  with  a  fatal  clasp, 
And  back  the  monster  falls  with  struggling  gasp. 
Who  sees  the  skilful  brass,  would  think  he  viewed 
The  beast's  quick  breath,  the  man  with  sweat  bedewed." 

Salmoneus  was  not  a  hero,  "but  he  affected  to  be  a  god. 
A  picture  of  him  was  painted  by  Polygnotus,  on  which 
there  is  this  epigram  by  Geminus  : — 

Me  Polygnotus'  hand  produced  :  with  Jove 
In  rival  thunderings,  I,  Salmoneus,  strove  : 
Though  I'm  in  Hades  now,  his  thunders  seek 
My  likeness,  which  no  boasting  words  can  speak. 
Spare,  Jove,  your  bolts :  give  o'er  the  inglorious  strife : 
War  not  with  images,  devoid  of  life." 

One  sees  here  an  example  of  the  confusion  of  ideas 
which  the  epigrammatist,  perhaps  •wilfully,  introduces, 
as  if  to  puzzle  his  reader.  The  picture  showed  Jupiter 
directing  his  thunder  against  Salmoneus.  But  if  Sal- 
moneus was  but  a  dead  image,  so  was  Jupiter  himself. 

The  story  of  Niobe  forms  a  frequent  subject  of 
epigrams,  and  may  be  considered  in  this  place.  It  is 
hopeless  to  attempt  any  strict  order  of  chronology  as 
to  personages  and  events  that  may  possibly  be  alto- 
gether fabulous. 

The  father  of  Niobe  was  Tantalus,  who  was  honoured 
by  the  friendship  and  hospitality  of  Jupiter,  but  un- 
fortunately got  into  disgrace  by  repeating  some  con- 
fidential communication  which  had  been  made  to  him 
at  Jupiter's  table.  This  no  ctoubt  was  very  wrong, 
but  the  punishment  inflicted  was  rather  severe.  He 
•was  placed  in  Tartarus,  and  suffered  perpetual  hunger 
and  thirst;  while  a  huge  stone,  impending  over  him, 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  163 

threatened  constantly  to  destroy  him.  The  following 
epigram,  by  ^Elius  Gallus,  relates  to  his  punishment. 
The  version  is  taken  chiefly  from  that  of  Hay : — 

ON  A  TANTALUS  SCULPTURED  ON  A  DRINKING-CUP. 

"  See  how  the  guest  of  gods,  who  often  quaffed 

The  nectar's  purple  juice,  now  longs  to  sip 

A  drop  of  water — while  the  envious  draught 

Shrinks  downward,  far  away  from  that  parched  lip 
In  silence  drink,'  tliis  sculpture  says,  '  and  know 
A  froward  tongue  brought  such  excess  of  woe.' " 

Niobe,  like  her  father,  became  an  object  of  divine 
resentment  for  a  similar  fault,  incontinence  of  tongue. 
Becoming  the  mother,  as  some  say,  of  fourteen  chil- 
dren, she  could  not  refrain  from  boasting  of  her  pre- 
eminence in  fertility  over  Latona,  the  mother  of  only  a 
pair,  Apollo  and  Diana.  These  deities  avenged  the 
insult  by  destroying  all  Niobe's  children  and  turning 
herself  to  stone,  or  allowing  her  grief  to  have  that 
eilect.  Sculptors  were  fond  of  representing  her  fate, 
and  in  particular  a  group  of  statues  was  produced, 
which  was  ultimately  brought  to  Eome,  and  of  which 
it  was  doubted  whether  Praxiteles  or  Scopas  was  the 
artist.  It  seems  now  to  be  considered  certain  that 
Scopas  has  the  merit.  In  later  times  this  group,  or 
ancient  duplicates  of  it,  were  found  in  Italy,  and  in 
1770  the  statues  so  found  were  removed  to  Florence, 
where  they  are  known  as  the  Niobids,  and  are  de- 
servedly admired  as  of  first-rate  excellence.  Here  is 
one  of  the  epigrams  upon  Niobe,  by  Antipater  of 
Sidon: — 


164  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

11  Tantalus'  daughter  this  :  once  proud  to  show 
Her  fourteen  children — now,  oh  sight  of  woe  ! 
A  monumental  victim  here  she  stands 
Of  Phosbus  and  Diana's  vengeful  hands. 
He  all  the  sons — she  all  the  daughters  slew — 
At  once  twice  Seven  were  stripped  of  life  by  Two. 
The  mother  of  so  many  thus  bereft, 
Had  not  even  one  to  soothe  her  sorrows  left. 
Not,  as  is  wont,  did  children  deck  her  tomb  ; 
To  bury  them  was  here  the  parent's  doom. 
Sins  of  the  tongue  on  her,  as  on  her  sire, 
Brought  down  in  varying  forms  celestial  ire  : 
She,  turned  to  stone  ;  he,  filled  with  fear  and  dread, 
With  that  huge  rock  impending  o'er  his  head." 

The  next  that  we  give  presents  the  story  in  a  more 
dramatic  form,  and  is  by  Meleager,  translated  by  Hay. 
A  messenger  speaks: — 

"  Daughter  of  Tantalus,  lorn  Niobe, 
Sad  are  the  tidings  which  I  bear  to  thee, 
Words  fraught  with  woe  :  ay,  now  unbind  thy  hair, 
The  streaming  signal  of  thy  wild  despair  : 
For  Phoebus'  darts  grief-painted  reek  with  gore, 
Alas  !  alas  ! — thy  sons  are  now  no  more. 
But  what  is  this — what  means  this  oozing  flood  ! 
Her  daughters,  too,  are  Aveltering  in  their  blood. 
One  clasps  a  mother's  knees,  one  clings  around 
Her  neck,  and  one  lies  prostrate  on  the  ground : 
One  seeks  her  breast :  one  eyes  the  coming  woe, 
And  shudders  :  one  is  trembling,  crouching  low  : 
The  seventh  is  breathing  out  her  latest  sigh, 
And  life-in-death  is  flickering  in  that  eye. 
She — the  woe-stricken  mother — left  alone, 
Erst  full  of  words — is  now  mute-stricken  stone." 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  165 

A  part  of  the  tradition  seems  to  have  been  that  Niobe, 
thua  transformed,  was  carried  off  in  a  whirlwind  and 
fixed  on  the  top  of  a  mountain  in  Phrygia,  which  Pau- 
sanias  says  he  visited,  when  he  saw  in  the  mountain, 
not  near  at  hand  but  at  a  certain  distance,  the  like- 
ness of  a  woman  weeping.  Ovid  embodies  this  part 
of  the  story  in  the  account  of  her  in  his  '  Metamor- 
phoses : ' — 

"  Borne  on  the  whirlwind  to  her  native  land, 
See  on  the  mountain-top  the  statue  stand. 
There  ever  fixed,  still  weeping  she  appears, 
And  from  the  marble  mass  even  now  distil  the  tears." 

A  playful  epigram  on  the  subject  of  Niobe  proceeds 
on  the  mistaken  idea  that  Praxiteles  was  the  artist  by 
whom  her  statue  was  made.  It  runs  thus  : — 

"  Me  the  gods  turned  to  stone,  but  turned  in  vain ; 
Praxiteles  has  made  me  live  again." 

The  story  of  Medea  is  another  frequent  and  favourite 
subject  of  art,  to  which  several  epigrams  refer  in  a 
manner  full  of  interest. 

Among  the  painters  of  antiquity,  few  have  a  greater 
name  than  Timomachus,  who  is  mentioned  with  high 
praise  by  the  best  ancient  writers  upon  art.  Two  of 
his  pictures  were  bought  by  Julius  Caesar  at  the  .price 
of  eighty  talents,  equal  to  about  £20,000,  and  placed 
by  him  in  the  temple  which  he  dedicated  to  Venus 
Genetrix,  as  the  ancestress  of  the  Julian  race.  These 
two  works  which  came  thus  to  be  publicly  accessible 
at  Rome,  are  the  subjects  of  several  epigrams.  One  of 


166  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

these  pictures,  representing  Medea  preparing  to  destroy 
her  children,  out  of  resentment  against  Jason  her  hus- 
band, is  expressly  deak  with  by  different  epigram- 
matists, who  notice  its  most  distinguishing  excellence 
in  representing  in  Medea's  features  the  conflict  be- 
tween parental  love  and  conjugal  jealousy  and  rage. 
It  is  believed  that  Antiphilus,  who  flourished  in  the 
first  century  of  our  era,  led  the  way  in  putting  this 
encomium  into  a  poetical  shape,  but  he  was  followed 
by  others.  The  title  is — 

UPON  A  LIKENESS  OF  MEDEA  AT  ROME. 

"  Timomachus,  when  his  skilled  hand  designed 

To  paint  Medea's  much  distracted  mind, 

Chose  a  great  task,  the  double  power  to  prove 

Of  jealous  hatred  and  maternal  love. 

One  passion  asked  a  look  to  anger  bent, 

And  one  as  strongly  to  compassion  leant. 
•  Both  he  achieved :  the  picture  tells  the  truth ; 

Tears  mix  with  threats,  and  rage  combines  with  ruth. 

Delay  was  here  most  wise  :  the  deed  thus  planned 

Befits  Medea's  not  the  artist's  hand." 

This  is  a  shorter  form  of  the  same  idea,  by  an  anony- 
mous author : — 

"  Timomachus  has  hi  Medea's  face 

Her  hate  and  mother's  love  at  once  portrayed  : 
Here  jealous  rage,  affection  there  we  trace  ; 

Thus  seems  her  children's  fate  a  while  delayed. 
She  longs  to  wield,  ehe  fears  to  use,  the  glaive — 
Wishing  at  once  to  slay  them  and  to  save." 

Lessing,  in  his  Laocoon,  that  admirable  exposition  of 
the  diiFering  objects  and  limits  of  poetry  and  the  fine 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  167 

arts,  has  commented  on  the  judgment  shown  by  Timo- 
machus  in  choosing  as  the  time  of  his  representation, 
not  the  actual  murder  of  Medea's  children,  but  the 
moment  before  it,  when  we  anticipate  the  result,  but 
are  saved  the  repulsive  pain  of  witnessing  it.  Another 
Greek  epigram  on  the  same  subject  has  expressed  the 
very  principle  contended  for  by  Lessing — namely,  that 
the  mimetic  arts  of  painting  and  sculpture  ought  not 
to  perpetuate  by  their  unchanging  representations  the 
extreme  limits  of  what  is  horrible  or  shocking.  The 
lines  are  :- 

"  Wisely  the  artist  has  the  end  concealed, 
Lest  admiration  should  to  horror  yield." 

Lessing  says  that  the  praise  thus  deservedly  earned 
by  Timomachus  contrasts  with  the  censure  directed  in 
an  epigram  by  Philippus  against  another  artist,  who 
had  represented  Medea  in  the  full  height  of  her  frenzy, 
without  any  mixture  of  a  milder  emotion.  We  are 
not  sure  upon  what  authority  this  is  stated ;  but  here 
is  a  translation  .of  the  epigram,  though  the  text  is  not 
without  difficulties,  and  seems  partially  corrupt : — 

"  Who  breathed,  thou  lawless  Colchian,  such  fierce  ire 
Into  thy  likeness,  such  barbarian  fire  ? 
Thy  cliildren's  blood  dost  thou  yet  thirst  to  spill  ? 
Glauce  again  for  a  new  Jason  kill  ? 
Hence,  cursed  murderess,  whose  relentless  heart 
Dares  to  infect  with  hate  the  painter's  ait ! " 

The  Ajax  of  the  same  painter  was  also  much 
admired,  as  exhibiting  a  similar  feeling  of  propriety  and 
soundness  oi  judgment.  The  subject  is  the  insanity  of 


168  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Ajax,  following  upon  the  decision  of  the  Greeks  which 
awarded  the  arms  of  Achilles  not  to  him  but  to  Ulys- 
ses. The  contest  is  admirably  narrated  in  the  13th 
Book  of  Ovid's  '  Metamorphoses,'  of  which  Dryden  has 
given  an  excellent  version. 

The  effect  of  the  judgment  on  Ajax  is  thus  described 
by  Ovid : — 

"  He  who  could  often  and  alone  withstand 
The  foe,  the  fire,  and  Jove's  own  partial  hand, 

-  Now  cannot  his  unmastered  grief  sustain, 
But  yields  to  rage,  to  madness,  and  disdain. 
Then  snatching  out  his  falchion, '  Thou,'  said  he, 
*  Art  mine ;  Ulysses  lays  no  claim  to  thee. 
Oh,  often-tried  and  ever-trusty  sword, 
Now  do  thy  last  kind  office  to  thy  lord. 
'Tis  Ajax  who  requests  thy  aid,  to  show 
None  hut  himself  himself  could  overthrow." 

But  Ovid  does  not  mention  the  intermediate  effects 
of  Ajax's  insanity,  during  which  he  is  said  to  have 
attacked  and  slaughtered  the  sheep  and  oxen  in  the 
fields,  in  the  belief  that  they  were  the  Greek  judges  who 
had  denied  him  his  rights.  In  Timomachus's  picture, 
however,  as  Lessing  observes,  "  he  was  not  represented 
in  the  height  of  his  paroxysm,  slaughtering  the  rams  and 
the  he-goats,  which  he  mistakes  for  his  enemies ;  but 
in  the  state  of  exhaustion  which  succeeded  to  these  feats, 
revisited  by  reason,  and  meditating  self-destruction. 
And  this  in  strict  meaning  is  the  "  Distracted  Ajax  "  of 
the  tragedy  :  not  that  he  is  so  now,  but  because  we  see 
his  distraction  expounded  by  its  effects,  and  the  enor- 
mity of  it  measured  by  the  acuteness  of  his  shame. 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  169 

Several  poems  in  the  Anthology  have  reference 
to  Ajax,  and  some  of  them  undoubtedly  to  this 
picture  by  Timoiuachus.  This  is  an  anonymous 
one : — 

"  Ajax,  Timomaohus  may  better  claim 
To  be  your  sire  than  he  who  bears  the  name  :  * 
Art  has  assumed  the  place  of  Nature's  power. 
The  painter  saw  you  in  your  frenzied  hour, 
And  his  hand  caught  the  madness.     Grief  appears, 
Mixed  in  each  varied  form  of  pain  and  tears." 

This  that  follows,  by  Leonidas,  not  of  Tarentum,  is 
understood  by  some  critics — with  great  probability,  wo 
think — to  represent  "  the  words  that  Ajax  would  have 
spoken  when  about  to  destroy  himself :" — 

"  I  now,  whom  Mars  was  still  afraid  to  slay, 
Struck  by  an  inward  foe,  here  waste  away. 
Come,  sword,  my  bosom  pierce  !  drive  hence  afar,   * 
With  manly  force,  disease  as  well  as  war." 

Gravelle,t  in  his  'Ancient  Gems/  gives  a  stone  re- 
presenting the  suicide  of  a  hero,  which  he  considers  to 
apply  to  Ajax. 

Ajax  seems  to  have  been  a  favourite  with  the  epi- 
grammatists as  well  as  with  the  artists,  as  there  are 
several  epigrams  upon  his  defeat  in  his  contest  for  the 
armour  of  Achilles,  and  upon  his  consequent  suicide. 
We  give  some  examples. 

This  is  by  Asclepiades,  perhaps  referring  to  some 
work  of  art : — 

*  Telamon.  t  Gravelle,  ii.  60. 


170  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  I,  Valour,  wretched  maid,  sit  here  forlorn 
By  Ajax'  tomb,  my  locks  for  sorrow  shorn : 
Grieved  at  my  heart,  among  the  Greeks  to  see 
Crafty  and  base  Deceit  preferred  to  me." 

The  next,  by  an  uncertain  author,  refers  to  his 
suicide,  and  may  have  been  borrowed  from  0  vid  : — 

"  Of  Telamonian  Ajax  this  the  tomb : 
From  his  own  hand  and  sword  he  met  his  doom  • 
For  Fate,  though  willing,  found  no  other  way 
A  hero  so  invincible  to  slay." 

Here  is  a  singular  epigram  on  Ajax,  of  which  the 
text  seems  not  very  pure,  and  the  allusions  require 
explanation : — 

"  Beside  brave  Ajax'  tomb  a  Phrygian  stood, 
And  mocked  the  chief  with  ribald  words  and  rude. 
'  Ajax  no  more  stood  firm,'  the  scoffer  said  : 
'  He  did  stand  firm,'  cried  out  the  indignant  dead ; 

.  Whereat,  in  fear,  the  living  Phrygian  fled," 

The  tomb  of  Ajax,  on  the  Trojan  plain,  was  ob- 
noxious to  the  natives,  who  retained  the  tradition 
of  his  having  destroyed  their  cattle  in  his  madness. 
The  peasants  used  to  utter  maledictions  against  him 
over  his  grave ;  but  the  story  was  told  that  on  one 
occasion  a  shout  came  from  the  earth  which  put  to 
flight  his  calumniators.  In  the  epigram  above  quoted, 
the  reproach  urged  against  Ajax  is  taken  from  a  line 
in  the  15th  Book  of  Homer,  where  Ajax  is  represented 
as  retiring  for  a  moment  before  Hector's  attack  on  the 
Grecian  ships ;  but  he  rallied  immediately,  and 
achieved  prodigies  of  valour. 

The  incidents  of  the  Trojan   War  were  frequent 


••I 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  171 

subjects  of  artistic  representation.  With  consummate 
ait,  Virgil,  in  the  ^Eneid,  leads  his  shipwrecked  hero 
to  a  temple  in  Carthage,  where  already  the  tale  of 
Troy  had  been,  in  full  detail,  sculptured  or  painted  on 
the  wall.  If  our  readers  will  turn  to  the  volume  of 
this  series  which  contains  Virgil,  p.  51,  they  will  find 
an  animated  description  of  the  scene ;  and  the  whole 
passage  may  be  read  with  pleasure  in  Dryden's  trans- 
lation, thougli  it  may  be  doubted  if  there  was  not  a 
certain  degree  of  anachronism  in  supposing  so  early 
an  advance  in  art. 

Among  the  most  celebrated  of  actual  pictures  on 
Homeric  subjects  are  those  which  the  painter  Polyg- 
notus  executed  for  the  Lesche  or  Conversation-room 
at  Delphi,  as  an  offering  by  the  Cnidians  to  Apollo. 
One  of  these  was  the  "  Taking  of  Troy,"  to  which  was 
attached  an  epigram  ascribed  to  Simonides.  The 
translation  is  somewhat  too  paraphrastic  : — 

"  This  picture,  traced  by  Polygnotus'  hand, — 
(Aglaophon's  son,  and  born  on  Thaso.s'  strand), — 
To  tell  its  wondrous  tale  has  here  been  placed, 
And  show  the  citadel  of  Troy  laid  waste." 

There  still  survive,  in  the  form  of  gems  or  engraved 
stones,  miniature  representations  of  Trojan  events,  of 
which  the  larger  pictures  or  sculptures  may  have  sup- 
plied themes  for  descriptive  epigrams.  The  works 
treating  of  ancient  gems  contain  much  interesting 
information  on  this  subject.  In  particular,  Mr 
King's  beautiful  books  on  the  Glyptic  Art  show  us  a 
full  series  of  gems  still  preserved  on  classical  my- 


172  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

thology,  on  the  epic  cycles,  and  on  Trojan  tradition, 
which  may  readily  be  connected  with  many  epigrams. 
Spence's  '  Polynietis,'  already  referred  to,  though  an 
old-fashioned  book,  will  also  be  of  use.  Some  of  the 
epigrams  alluded  to  have  already  been  given,  and  we 
shall  now  notice  a  few  others. 

One  of  the  gems  represents  ^Eneas  issuing  from  the 
gates  of  Troy  with  Anchises  upon  his  shoulder,  and 
leading  the  boy  Ascanius  in  his  hand.  The  follow- 
ing epigram  relates  to  that  subject,  and  perhaps  has 
reference  to  the  work  of  art  from  which  the  gem  was 
taken : — 

"  From  burning  Troy,  from  ranks  of  hostile  spears, 
./Eneas  laden  with  his  sire  appears  ; 
A  holy  burden  for  a  pious  son  ! 
'  Spare  him,  ye  Greeks,'  he  cries ;  '  no  glory's  won 
O'er  an  old  man  in  battle  :  but  to  me, 
Bearing  him  safe,  how  great  the  gain  will  be  ! '" 

The  story  of  Philoctetes,  too,  belongs  to  the  cycle  of 
the  Trojan  War,  and  was  also  a  common  subject  of  art. 
Here  are  two  epigrams  upon  him  :  the  first  upon  a 
picture  by  Parrhasius,  who  used  to  boast  that  he  saw 
in  sleep  or  in  his  mind's  eye  everything  that  he 
painted  ;  the  other  is  upon  a  piece  of  sculpture  : — 

"  Trachinian  Philoctetes,  wretched  wight ! 
Parrhasius  drew,  such  as  he  met  his  sight. 
'Twixt  his  parched  eyelids  lurks  the  languid  tear, 
And  all  his  wasting  toil  is  pictured  here. 
Thou  best  of  artists,  great  thy  skill,  but  oh  ! 
Twas  time  to  free  him  from  this  tearful  woe  ! " 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  173 

"  Worse  than  the  Greeks,  a  new  Ulysses,  he, 
Who  sculptured  thus  my  wound  and  agony. 
This  rock,  these  rags  are  sad — the  sore,  the  pain  ; 
But  now  in  brass,  my  misery  must  remain." 

The  following  epigram  relates  obviously  to  a  picture 
of  Capaneus  at  the  siege  of  Thebes,  an  event  earlier 
than  the  Trojan  War.  Capaneus  was  struck  by 
lightning  from  Jupiter  for  his  presumption,  and  this 
gives  the  epigrammatist  his  hint.  The  picture  was  by 
Polygnotus : — 

"  Had  Capaneus  at  Thebes  such  rage  displayed, 
When,  its  high  towers  to  scale,  his  feet  essayed, 
The  city  had  been  stormed  in  fate's  despite, 
For  even  Jove's  bolts  had  feared  with  him  to  fight." 

Though  somewhat  out  of  place  in  the  order  of 
time  to  which  the  works  of  art  referred  to  may  seem 
to  belong,  we  shall  here  insert  two  epigrams  connected 
with  the  well-known  story  of  Arion,  of  whom  there 
was  erected  a  statue  at  Corinth,  representing  also  the 
dolphin  which  brought  him  safe  to  land : —  . 

"  When  sweet   Arion,   Cycles'  son,  implored  the   aid   of 

Heaven, 
To  bear  him  from    Sicilian    seas  was   this  Conveyance 

given." 

"  This  image  of  Arion  here — great  Periander  placed, 

Ami  of  the   Dolphin   who  gave  aid  with  such  effectual 

haste, 

Saving  from  death  the  sinking  bard  :  Arion's  fable  shows, 
From  men  we  oft  destruction  meet,  from  fish   salvation 

flows." 

Leaving  now  gods  and  heroes,  and  fabulous  persons 


174  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

and  events,  we  may  proceed  to  those  works  of  art,  or 
rather  to  those  epigrams  upon  such  works,  which  deal 
with  realities.  One  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
second  class  of  artists  was  Myro,  or  Myron,  who, 
though  he  aspired  occasionally  to  represent  deities 
or  heroes,  was  yet  more  at  home  on  humbler  subjects. 
A  proof  of  this  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  the  im- 
portance which  was  attached  to  his  celebrated  statue 
of  a  heifer,  on  which  an  interminable  quantity  of 
epigrams  was  written.  We  shall  not  trouble  our 
readers  with  many  of  these,  for  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged that  they  constitute  a  very  idle  assemblage  of 
laborious  trifles.  One  of  them  we  shall  give  as  a 
specimen,  from  which  the  character  of  the  others  may 
be  inferred.  It  is  by  Antipater  : — 

"  Methinks  this  heifer  is  about  to  low  :  \ 

So,  not  Prometheus  only,  Myron,  thou, 
Like  him,  with  life  canst  lifeless  things  endow."  ) 

Myro  made  a  statue  of  Bacchus  also,  to  which  the 
following  epigram  refers  : — 

"  Bacchus,  once  more  you  from  the  fire  come  forth  ; 
'Tis  Myron  now  who  gave  this  second  birth." 

Besides  these  subjects,  Myron  particularly  excelled 
in  athletic  figures.  The  victors  in  the  public  games 
were  frequent  subjects  of  art,  especially  of  sculptui-e, 
and  are  so  referred  to  in  many  epigrams,  whether 
actual  or  descriptive.  Here  is  one  by  Simonides, 
which  it  is  probable  was  actually  inscribed  on  a 
statue  of  Milo,  the  celebrated  athlete : — 


LITERARY  AND   ARTISTIC.  175 

"  This,  Milo's  image  !  wondrous  fair  to  see, 
Of  a  form  wondrous  iair  !  at  Pisa  he 
Victor  seven  times,  to  none  e'er  bowed  the  knee." 

The  speed  of  Ladas  as  a  runner  was  much  extolled 
by  ancient  writers  ;  there  were  two  of  the  name,  the 
more  celebrated  of  the  two  being  an  Argive,  who  was 
hyperbolically  said  to  ran  with  such  velocity  and  light- 
ness that  he  left  no  traces  of  his  steps  in  the  dust 
over  which  he  passed.  He  is  referred  to  in  several 
epigrams  more  or  less  seriously.  This  is  one  by  an 
unknown  Avriter  : — 

"  If  Ladas  ran  or  flew,  in  that  last  race, 
Who  knows  1  'twas  such  a  demon  of  a  pace." 

To    which     another     couplet     was    added,    to    this 
effect: — 

"  Scarce  was  the  starting-rope  withdrawn,  when  there 
Ladas  stood  crowned,  yet  had  not  turned  a  hair." 

A  parody  upon  this  appeared  upon  a  runner  who  was 
so  slow  that  he  seemed  never  to  move  : — 

"  If  Pericles  there  ran  or  sate,  none  know : 
He  was  so  demoniacally  slow. 

Scarce  was  the  starting-rope  withdrawn,  when  there 
Ladas  stood  crowned,  and  Pericles  was — where  ? " 

The  serious  epigram  upon  Ladas  may  be  thus  trans- 
lated nearly  as  Hay  has  done  : — 

"  Such  as  thou  wert  when  with  aerial  bound, 
Thy  tiptoe  never  seen  to  touch  the  ground, 
Thou  fledst,  outstripping  Thymus'  swift  career, — 
Such,  Ladas,  Myro's  brass  reveals  thee  here, 
Where  every  limb  and  sinew  sei-ms  to  breathe 
Assured  prediction  of  the  Pisan  wreath." 


176  TllK  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

It  has  been  thought  that  the  original  epigram  stopped 
here;  but  as  given  in  the  Anthology  of  Plumules  there 
are  four  more  lines,  which  perhaps  rather  weaken  than 
improve  the  previous  part.  These  have  been  thus 
translated : — 

"  How  full  of  hope!  those  hollow  flanks  aspire 
To  send  up  to  the  lips  a  breath-like  fire. 
Soon  on  the  wreath,  unchecked,  the  brass  will  start, 
Oh,  swifter  than  the  wind,  the  sculptor's  art !  " 

We  formerly  referred  to  Lysippus,  the  Court  sculp 
tor  to  Alexander  the  Great ;  and  an  epigram  may  here 
be  given  on  a  statue  by  him  of  that  monarch,  which 
was  considered  remarkable  for  its  fidelity  : — 

ON  A  STATUE  BY  LYSIPPUS  OF  ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT. 
By  Archelaus. 

"  Lysippus  formed  in  brass  the  courage  high 

Of  Alexander,  and  his  aspect  bold  : 
The  brass  looks  up  to  heaven,  and  seems  to  cry : 
The  earth  is  mine  :  thou,  Jove,  Olympus  hold." 

There  are  epigrams  upon  pictures  of  private  persons, 
which  are  interesting — one  in  particular,  by  Nossis,  a 
Locrian  lady,  on  her  child's  picture  ;  and  another  on 
a  friend.  The  translations  are  by  Hay  : — 


"  This  is  Melinna's  self :  the  gentle  child 
Looks  sweetly  on  me  with  those  eyes  so  mild. 
My  own  dear  daughter — oh!  what  bliss  to  trace 
A  parent's  features  in  an  infant  face  !  " 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC.  177 

II. 
"  Thy  mare  te,  thy  very  self  is  there, 

Pictured  in  all  thy  dignity  and  grace  : 
Thy  noble  pride,  thine  awe-commanding  air, 

Mingled  with  mildness  in  that  lovely  face  ; 
Shaking  his  tail,  thy  faithful  dog  draws  near, 
Deeming  he  gazes  on  his  mistress  dear." 

Another  of  the  same  kind  is  by  Erinna  : — 

"  This  painting,  best  Prometheus,  for  thy  shrine 
Accept  :  see,  human  hands  have  skill  like  thin*1. 
If  he  who  thus  this  maiden  drew  had  known     i 
To  add  a  voice,  we  had  rejoiced  to  own 
All  Agatharchis  to  the  life  here  shown." 

Here  is  an  epigram  which  obviously  attempts  to  de- 
scribe a  picture  mentioned  by  Pliny  as  painted  by  a 
Theban  painter,  Aristides,  of  a  mother  mortally  wound- 
ed in  a  siege,  but  still  in  her  last  agony  suckling  her 
child.  It  is  by  ^Emilianus  : — 

"  Suck,  hapless  babe,  this  breast  while  yet  I  live  ; 
Draw  the  last  drop  thy  mother  e'er  can  give. 
The  foeman's  sword  lias  robbed  me  of  my  breath, 
But  a  true  mother's  love  survives  in  death." 

Some  epigrams  may  here  be  added  alluding  to  actual 
gems  or  other  works  of  art  of  a  minor  character.  Pliny 
tells  us  of  a  Satyr  represented  on  a  cup,  rather  put  to 
sleep  there  than  carved :  an  epigram  embodies  that 
very  idea: — 

"  This  Satyr  was  not  carved,  but  laid  asleep  : 
Nudge  him,  he'll  wake  in  wrath  ;  so,  quiet  keep." 

Here  is  a  description  of  a  painting  imitated  on  a 
crystal,  the  artist  being  Satyreius  : — 

A.  c.  voL  xx.  M 


178  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

u  Zeuxis'  sweet  colouring  and  style  are  here  ; 
In  this  small  crystal  all  the  charms  appear 
Of  great  Arsinoe's  form  ;  you  see  her  stand 
Fashioned  and  sent  by  Satyreius'  hand ; 
The  likeness  of  the  queenly  dame  am  I, 
And  noway  short  in  grace  or  majesty." 

Here  is  another  epigram,  describing  a  carved  stone : — 

"  A  tiny  stone,  a  jasper,  here  displays 
Five  oxen  carved,  who  seem  to  live  and  graze  ; 
And  soon  the  little  herd  would  wander  hence, 
If  not  imprisoned  by  their  golden  fence." 

Some  of  the  epigrams  of  this  artistic  character  may 
seem  trifling,  but  others  are  undoubtedly  fine,  and  all 
of  them  are  interesting.  Yet  we  venture  to  say  that 
never  was  poetry  in  its  best  days  employed  to  illustrate 
art  with  so  much  truth  and  beauty  as  in  our  own 
time,  in  Byron's  exquisite  description  of  the  Dying 
Gladiator. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

WITTY     AND     SATIRICAL. 

IT  world  not  have  been  conformable  either  to  human 
nature  in  general,  or  to  Greek  nature  in  particular,  if 
the  c<  antry  and  the  literature  that  produced  Aristo- 
phanes should  not  in  its  less  serious  compositions  have 
given  some  place  for  wit  and  sarcasm.  We  find,  ac- 
cordingly, that  these  elements  are  not  wanting.  A 
great  many  epigrams  both  of  a  jocular  and  of  a  satirical 
kind  are  well  deserving  of  notice,  of  which  specimens 
shall  now  be  given. 

Nowhere,  perhaps,  are  the  proper  objects  of  ridicule 
better  set  forth  than  in  the  Introduction  to  one  of 
Foote's  farces.  He  refuses  to  bring  on  the  stage  mere 
bodily  defects  or  natural  misfortunes ;  and  when  asked 
to  say  at  what  things  we  may  laugh  with  propriety, 
answers  thus  : — "  At  an  old  beau,  a  superannuated 
beauty,  a  military  coward,  a  stuttering  orator,  or  a 
gouty  dancer.  In  short,  whoever  aifects  to  be  what  he 
is  not,  or  strives  to  be  what  he  cannot,  is  an  object 
worthy  the  poet's  pen  and  your  mirth." 

"We  do  not  say  that  the  Greek  epigrammatist  always 
abstained  from  making  merry  at  mere  bodily  defects  ; 
but  we  shall  avoid  as  much  as  possible  those  that  have 


180  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

no  other  recommendation.  The  proper  object  of  ridi- 
cule is  surely  Folly,  and  the  proper  object  of  satire, 
Vice.  Within  the  present  section,  however,  will 
be  included  not  merely  the  ridicule  of  sarcasm  and 
the  attacks  of  satire,  but  any  also  of  those  merry  or 
witty  views  of  nature  and  things  that  tend  to  produce 
sympathetic  laughter. 

Of  bodily  peculiarities  there  are  some  at  which  it  is 
difficult  not  to  smile ;  and  if  it  is  done  good-hum  our- 
edly,  and  rather  as  a  warning  to  abstain  from  vanity 
or  conceit,  there  is  no  harm  in  it.  Many  of  such  epi- 
grams were  probably  written  upon  merely  imaginary 
persons  : — 

A  NEW  USE  OP  A  HUMAN  FACE. 
Attributed  to  the  Emperor  Trajan  :  the  translation  old. 

"  "With  nose  so  long  and  mouth  so  wide, 
And  those  twelve  grinders  side  by  side, 
Dick,  with  a  very  little  trial, 
Would  make  an  excellent  sun-dial." 

Some  of  the  critics  are  greatly  delighted  to  find  that 
in  this  epigram  the  Emperor's  knowledge  of  Greek  was 
not  such  as  to  prevent  him  committing  a  false  quantity. 

A   COUNTERPART    TO    NARCISSUS. 

By  Lucillius  :  translated  by  Cowper. 
u  Beware,  my  friend  !  of  crystal  brook 
Or  fountain,  lest  that  hideous  hook, 
Thy  nose,  thou  chance  to  see  ; 
Narcissus'  fate  would  then  be  thine, 
And  self-detested  thou  wouldst  pine, 
As  self-enamoured  he." 


WITTY  AND   SATIRICAL.  181 

LONG  AND  SHORT. 
Anonymous  :  translated  by  Merivale. 

"  Dick  cannot  blow  his  nose  whene'er  he  pleases, 

His  nose  BO  long  is,  and  his  arm  so  short ; 
Nor  ever  cries,  God  bless  me  !  when  he  sneezes — 
He  cannot  hear  so  distant  a  report." 

A  variety  of  trades  and  professions  have  been  tradi- 
tional objects  of  ridicule.  Schoolmasters  and  professors 
come  in  for  their  share. 

ON  A  SCHOOLMASTER  WHO  HAD  A  GAY  WIFE. 
By  Lucillius. 

"  You  in  your  school  for  ever  flog  and  flay  us, 
Teaching  what  Paris  did  to  Menelaus  ; 
But  all  the  while,  within  your  private  dwelling, 
There's  many  a  Paris  courting  of  your  Helen." 

ON  A  PROFESSOR  WHO  HAD  A  SMALL  CLASS. 

"  Hail,  Aristides,  Rhetoric's  great  professor  ! 
Of  wondrous  words  we  own  thee  the  possessor. 
Hail  ye,  his  pupils  seven,  that  mutely  hear  him — 
His  room's  four  walls,  and  the  three  benches  near  him  ! " 

This  that  follows  is  on  Cadmus,  without  whom  there 
might  have  been  no  grammar  and  little  rhetoric.  It 
is  said  to  be  by  Zeno — not  the  philosopher,  we  pre- 
sume. We  give  first  a  translation  by  Wellesley : — 

"  Take  it  not  ill  that  Cadmus,  Phoonician  though  he  be, 
Can  say  that  Greece  was  taught  by  him  to  write  her  A, 
B,  C." 

This  is  good  ;  but  even  "  English  readers"  may  know 
that  A,  I>,  C,  is  not  the  right  name  of  the  Greek  alpha- 
bet. Let  us  respectfully  propose  a  slight  change  : — 


182  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  Cadmus  am  I:  then  grudge  me  not  the  boast,  that,  though 

I  am  a 
Phoenician  born,  I  taught  you  Greeks  your  Alpha,  Beta, 

Gamma." 

The  medical  profession  as  usual  comes  in  for  some 
of  those  touches  which  we  are  ready  enough  to  give  or 
to  enjoy  when  we  are  not  actually  in  their  hands. 

A  CONVENIENT  PARTNERSHIP. 
Anonymous. 

"  Damon,  who  plied  the  Undertaker's  trade, 
With  Doctor  Crateas  an  agreement  made. 
What  linens  Damon  from  the  dead  could  seize, 
He  to  the  Doctor  sent  for  bandages ; 
While  the  good  Doctor,  here  no  promise-breaker, 
Sent  all  his  patients  to  the  Undertaker." 

GRAMMAR  AND  MEDICINE. 

By  Agathias. 

"  A  thriving  doctor  sent  his  son  to  school 
To  gain  some  knowledge,  should  he  prove  no  fool ; 
But  took  him  soon  away  with  little  warning, 
On  finding  out  the  lesson  he  was  learning — 
How  great  Pelides'  wrath,  in  Homer's  rhyme, 
Sent  many  souls  to  Hades  ere  their  time. 
'  No  need  for  this  my  boy  should  hither  come ; 
That  lesson  he  can  better  learn  at  home — 
For  I  myself,  now,  I  make  bold  to  say,  \ 

Send  many  souls  to  Hades  ere  their  day, 
Nor  e'er  find  want  of  Grammar  stop  my  way.' "  ) 

Musical  attempts,  when  unsuccessful,  are  a  fruitful 
and  fair  subject  of  ridicule.  The  following  is  by 
Nicarchus : — 


WITTY  AND  SATIRICAL.  183 

*'  Men  die  when  the  night  raven  sings  or  cries  : 
But  when  Dick  sings,  e'en  the  night  raven  dies." 

COMPENSATION. 
By  Leonidas. 

K  The  harper  Simylus,  the  whole  night  through, 
Harped  till  his  music  all  the  neighbours  slew : 
All  but  deaf  Origen,  for  whose  dull  ears 
Nature  atoned  by  giving  length  of  years." 

THE  MUSICAL  DOCTOR. 

By  Aminian  :  the  translation  altered  from  "Wellesley. 
"  Nicias,  a  doctor  and  musician, 
Lies  under  very  foul  suspicion. 
He  sings,  and  without  any  shame 

He  murders  all  the  finest  music  : 
Does  he  prescribe  ?  our  fate's  the  same, 
If  he  shall  e'er  find  me  or  you  sick." 

Unsuccessful  painters,  too,  are  sneered  at.  This  is 
by  Lucillius : — 

"  Eutychus  many  portraits  made,  and  many  sons  begot ; 
But,  strange  to  say !  none  ever  saw  a  likeness  in  the  lot." 

Compliments  to  the  fair  sex  are  often  paid  by  the 
epigrammatists  in  a  manner  at  once  witty  and  graceful. 

We  have  seen  how  Sappho  was  described  as  a  tenth 
M  use  ;  but  this  epigram  by  an  unknown  author  goes 
further.  The  translation  is  old  and  anonymous, 
though  borrowed  apparently  from  one  by  Swift, 
on  which  it  has  improved.  It  has  been  slightly 
altered : — 


184  T1IK   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

"  The  world  must  now  two  Venus's  adore  ; 
Ten  are  the  Muses,  and  the  Graces  four. 
Such  Dora's  wit,  so  fair  her  form  and  face, 
She's  a  new  Muse,  a  Venus,  and  a  Grace." 

"We  find  an  adaptation  of  this  to  an  accomplished 
Cornish  lady,  in  an  old  magazine  : — 

"  Now  the  Graces  are  four  and  the  Venus's  two, 

And  ten  is  the  number  of  Muses  ; 
For  a  Muse  and  a  Grace  and  a  Venus  are  you, 
My  dear  little  Molly  Trefusis." 

Finally,  we  have  another  edition  of  this  idea  with 
a  bit  of  satire  at  the  end,  which  has  been  maliciously 
added  by  the  translator  : — 

"  Of  Graces  four,  of  Muses  ten, 

Of  Venus's  now  two  are  seen  ; 
Doris  shines  forth  to  dazzled  men, 

A  Grace,  a  Muse,  and  Beauty's  Queen ; — 
But  let  me  whisper  one  thing  more  ; 
The  Furies  now  are  likewise  four." 

The  faults  and  foibles  of  women,  springing  often 
so  naturally  from  their  innate  wish  to  please,  have  not 
escaped  such  of  the  epigrammatists  as  were  inclined  to 
satire,  and  some  of  them  are  bitter  enough.  The  first 
we  give  must  have  been  occasioned  by  some  irritating 
disappointment,  or  have  sprung  from  an  unworthy 
opinion  of  the  sex.  It  is  by  our  friend  Palladas  : — 

"  All  wives  are  plagues  ;  yet  two  blest  times  have  they, — 
Their  bridal  first,  and  then  their  burial  day." 

The  others  we   give  are  less  sweeping,   and  more 


WITTY  AND   SATIRICAL.  185 

directed  against  individual  failings,  particularly  the 
desire  to  appear  more  beautiful  or  more  youthful  than 
the  facts  warranted.  This  is  by  Lucillius  : — 

"  Chloe,  those  locks  of  raven  hair, — 

Some  people  say  you  dye  them  black  ; 
But  that's  a  libel,  I  can  swear, 

For  I  know  where  you  buy  them  black." 

Our  next  deals  with  a  very  systematic  dyer  and 
getter-up  of  artificial  juvenility,  who  seems  to  have 
been  her  own  Madame  Rachel.  The  Greek  is 
Ltician's,  and  the  translation  by  Merivale.  There  is 
also  one  by  Cowper,  which  will  be  found  among  his 
works : — 

"  Yes,  you  may  dye  your  hair,  but  not  your  age, 
Nor  smooth,  alas  !  the  wrinkles  of  your  face  : 

Yes,  you  may  varnish  o'er  the  tell-tale  page, 
And  wear  a  mask  for  every  vanished  grace. 

But  there's  an  end.     No  Hecuba,  by  aid 

Of  rouge  and  ceruse,  is  a  Helen  made." 

The  inactive  habits  of  most  of  the  Greek  women 
are  thought  to  have  created  a  temptation  to  the  use 
of  these  artificial  modes  of  heightening  the  complexion, 
which  would  have  been  better  effected  by  the  natural 
pigments  laid  on  by  fresh  air  and  exercise. 

This  is  upon  an  old  woman  wishing  to  be  married  at 
rather  an  advanced  period  of  life,  by  N.  icarchus  : — 

"  Niconoe  has  doubtless  reached  her  prime  : 
Yes,  for  she  did  so  in  Deucalion's  time. 
We  don't  know  as  to  that,  but  think  her  doom 
Less  fitted  for  u  husband  than  a  tomb." 


186  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

This  also  is  upon  an  old,  or  at  least  a  plain  woman, 
by  Lucillius : — 

"  Gellia,  your  mirror's  false  ;  you  could  not  bear, 
If  it  were  true,  to  see  your  image  there." 

ON  A  WOMAN  SCORNFUL  IN  YOUTH  PLAYING  THE 
COQUETTE  WHEN  OLD. 

By  Rufinus. 

"  You  now  salute  me  graciously,  when  gone 
Your  beauty's  power,  that  once  like  marble  shone ; 
You  now  look  sweet,  though  forced  to  hide  away 
Those  locks  that  o'er  your  proud  neck  used  to  stray. 
Vain  are  your  arts  :  your  faded  charms  I  scorn  ; 
The  rose  now  past,  I  care  not  for  the  thorn." 

UPON  A  LADY'S  COY,  RELUCTANT,  "UNAMOROUS"  DELAY. 

By  Rufinus. 

"  How  long,  hard  Prodice,  am  I  to  kneel, 
And  pray  and  whine,  to  move  that  breast  of  steel  ? 
You  e'en  are  getting  grey,  as  much  as  I  am ; 
We  soon  shall  be— just  Hecuba  and  Priam.* 

Deafness  is  an  infirmity  which  is  a  proper  object, 
not  of  ridicule,  but  of  pity  ;  but  then  the  deaf  person 
should  not  pretend  to  hear  when  he  or  she  cannot,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  old  lady  now  to  be  noticed  : — 

ON  A  DEAF  HOUSEKEEPER. 
(Paraphrased.) 

"  Of  all  life's  plagues  I  recommend  to  no  man 
To  hire  as  a  domestic  a  deaf  woman. 
I've  got  one  who  my  orders  does  not  hear, 
Mishears  them  rather,  and  keeps  blundering  near. 


WITTY  AND  SATIRICAL.  187 

Thirsty  and  hot,  I  asked  her  for  a  drink  ; 
She  bustled  out,  and  brought  me  back  some  ink, 
Eating  a  good  rump-steak,  I  called  for  mustard  ; 
Away  she  went,  and  whipped  me  up  a  custard. 
I  wanted  with  my  chicken  to  have  ham  ; 
Blundering  once  more,  she  brought  a  pot  of  jam. 
I  wished  in  season  for  a  cut  of  salmon., 
And  what  she  bought  me  was  a  huge  fat  gammon. 
I  can't  my  voice  raise  higher  and  still  higher, 
As  if  I  were  a  herald  or  town-crier. 
'Twould  better  be  if  she  were  deaf  outright ; 
But  anyhow  she  quits  my  house  this  night." 

Those  ladies — generally,  of  course,  such  as  were 
advanced  in  life — who  unblushingly  betook  themselves 
to  the  bottle,  are  an  inevitable  subject  of  satire.  It 
has  already  been  mentioned  that  even  men  were 
considered  intemperate  who  drunk  wine  without  a  large 
admixture  of  water  ;  but  apparently  the  female  topers, 
having  once  broken  bounds,  took  their  wine  un- 
mixed. 

EPITAPH  ON  MARONIS. 

"  This  rudely  sculptured  Cup  will  show 
Where  grey  Maronis  lies  below. 
She  talked,  and  drank  strong  unmixed  stuff, 
Both  of  them  more  than  quantum  suff. 
She  does  not  for  her  children  grieve, 
Nor  their  poor  father  grudge  to  leave  ; 
It  only  vexes  her  to  think 
This  drinking-cup's  not  filled  with  drink." 

The   last  couplet  might  be  more  literally  translated 
thus  : — 

"  But  in  the  grave  she  scarcely  can  lie  still, 

To  think,  what  Bacchus  owns,  she  can't  with  Bacchus  fill." 


188  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Love  is  sometimes  treated  of  in  a  vein  of  pleasantry, 
very  different  from  the  deep  and  impassioned  tone 
in  which  it  is  exhibited  in  more  serious  compositions. 
Take  some  examples  : — 

Is  A  BLACK  WOMAN  ONE  OP  THE  FAIR  SEX  ? 
By  Meleager. 

"  By  Didyma's  beauty  I'm  carried  away  ; 
I  melt,  when  I  see  it,  like  wax  before  fire : 
She  is  black,  it  is  true  :  so  are  coals  ;  but  even  they, 
When  they're  warmed,  a  bright  glow  like  the  rose-cup 
acquire." 

This  is  by  Archias,  Cicero's  friend  and  client, 
written  perhaps  to  illustrate  some  piece  of  art : — 

"  What !  fly  from  love  ?  vain  hope  :  there's  no  retreat, 
When  he  has  wings  and  I  have  only  feet." 

This  is  by  Crates,  translated  by  Sayers,  Southey's 
friend : — 

CURES  FOR  LOVE. 

"  Hunger,  perhaps,  may  cure  your  love, 
Or  time  your  passion  greatly  alter  : 
If  both  should  unsuccessful  prove, 
I  strongly  recommend  a  halter." 

VENUS  AND  THE  MUSES. 

By  some  said  to  be  Plato's. 

"  To  the  Muses  said  Venus  :  '  Maids,  mind  what  you  do  ; 
Honour  me,  or  I'll  set  my  boy  Cupid  on  you.' 
Then  to  Venus  the  Muses  :  '  To  Mars  chatter  thus  : 
Your  urchin  ne'er  ventures  to  tly  upon  us.' " 


WITTY  AND  SATIRICAL.  189 

The  light  and  cheerful  way  in  which  poor  men 
speak  of  their  poverty  is  often  pleasant.  Here  are 
some  examples  : — 

WANT  A  GOOD  WATCH-DOG. 
By  Julian  :  the  translation  by  Wellesley. 

.    u  Seek  a  more  profitable  job, 

Good  housebreakers,  elsewhere  : 
These  premises  you  cannot  rob, 
Want  guards  them  with  such  care." 

THE  POOR  SCHOLAR'S  ADMONITION  TO  THE  MICE. 
By  Aristo. 

"  0  mice !  if  here  you  come  for  food,  you'd  better  go  else- 
where, 

For  in  this  cabin,  small  and  rude,  you'll  find  but  slender 
fare. 

Go  where  you'll  meet  with  good  fat  cheese,  and  sweet  dried 
figs  in  plenty, 

Where  even  the  scraps  will  yield  with  ease  a  banquet  rich 
and  dainty: 

If  to  devour  my  books  you  come,  you'll  rue  it,  without 
question, 

And  find  them  all,  as  I  find  some,  of  very  hard  digestion." 

The  folly  of  fools  is  a  fair  subject  of  ridicule.  This 
is  by  Lucian: — 

"A  blockhead  bit  by  fleas  put  out  the  light, 
And  chuckling  cried,  Now  you  can't  see  to  bite." 

Here  is  something  which  the  Greeks  considered  folly, 
by  Lucian: — 

"  While  others  tippled,  Sam  from  drinking  shrunk, 
Which  made  the  rest  think  Sam  alone  was  drunk." 


190  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Without  recommending  excess,  there  are  a  good  many 
invitations  to  jollity.  Here  is  one  : — 

M  Sober  Eubulus,  friends,  lies  here  below  : 
So  then,  let's  drink  :  to  Hades  all  must  go." 

What   follows  is  a  favourite  sentiment — perhaps  too 
much  so — with  the  old  poets  : — 

"  Wine  to  the  poet  is  a  winged  steed  ; 
Those  who  drink  water  come  but  little  speed." 

One  great  poet  has  existed  in  our  day  who  was  a  signal 
exception  to  this  alleged  rule. 

The  following  is  by  the  Emperor  Julian,  and  refers 
to  that  substitute  for  wine  which  the  Germans  dis- 
covered by  fermenting,  or,  as  Tacitus  calls  it,  corrupt- 
ing, grain.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  pleased  the 
imperial  wine-drinker.  The  translation  is  necessarily 
paraphrastic  : — 

"  Who  ?  whence  this,  Bacchus  1  for  by  Bacchus'  self, 
The  son  of  Jove,  I  know  not  this  strange  elf. 
The  other  smells  like  nectar  :  but  thou  here 
Like  the  he-goat.     Those  wretched  Kelts,  I  fear, 
For  want  of  grapes  made  thee  of  ears  of  corn. 
Demetrius  art  thou,  of  Demeter  born, 
Not  Bacchus,  Dionysus,  nor  yet  wine— 
Those  names  but  fit  the  products  of  the  vine  ; 
BEER  thou  mayst  be  from  Barley ;  or,  that  failing, 
We'll  call  thee  ALE,  for  thou  wilt  keep  us  ailing." 

A  bath  to  the  Greeks,  as  we  might  expect — at  least,  in 
their  later  development — was  a  great  enjoyment,  if  no$ 
a  necessity  of  life.  The  epigrammatists  supply  us  with 
many  pleasant  and  playful  inscriptions  for  ba^hs  or 


WITTY  AND  SATIRICAL.  191 

bathing-places,  illustrating  their  virtues  and  attractions. 
The  purity  and  freshness  of  the  water  are  natural  themes 
of  eulogium,  and  the  patronage  of  divine  beings  is 
readily  supposed.  Here  is  a  selection,  all  of  them 
apparently  anonymous : — 

"  This  bath  may  boast  the  Graces'  own  to  be, — 
And  for  that  reason  it  holds  only  three." 


"  Here  bathed  the  Graces,  and  at  leaving  gave 
Their  choicest  splendours  to  requite  the  wave." 

Or  thus,  which  we  may  suppose  written  of  the  draped 
Graces : — 

"  Here  bathed  the  Graces,  and,  by  way  of  payment, 
Left  half  their  charms  when  they  resumed  their  raiment." 


"  Here  Venus  bathed,  ere  she  to  Paris'  eyes 
Displayed  the  immortal  form  that  gained  the  prize." 

Or  thus  : — 

"  Straight  from  this  bath  went  Venus,  wet  and  dripping  ; 
To  Paris  showed  herself — and  won  the  pippin." 


u  Either  these  waves  gave  Venus  birth,  or  she, 
Her  form  here  bathing,  made  them  what  we  see." 

ON  A  SMALL-SIZED  BATH. 

u  Blame  not  things  little  :  Grace  may  on  them  wait. 
Cupid  is  little ;  but  his  godhead's  great." 

We  are  warned,  however,  that  excess  in  the  use  of 
the  warm  bath,  as  in  other  indulgences,  may  be  injuri- 
ous : — 


192  THE  GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

a  Wine  and  the  bath,  and  lawless  love  for  ladies, 
Just  send  us  quicker  down  the  hill  to  Hades." 

Some  vices  are  particularly  obnoxious  to  the  satirical- 
epigrammatist,  especially  avarice  and  envy  : — 

STINGINESS  IN  HOSPITALITY. 
By  Pallas  :  translation  altered  from  Wellesley. 

"  Most  people  dine  but  once,  but  when  we've  dined 

With  our  friend  Salaminus, 
We  dine  again  at  home,  for  faith  !  we  find 
He  did  not  truly  dine  us." 

BOARD  OR  LODGING. 

By  Lucillius  :  translation  altered  from  Cowper. 
"  Asclepiades,  the  Miser,  in  his  house 
Espied  one  day,  with  some  surprise,  a  mouse  : 
'  Tell  me,  dear  mouse,'  he  cried,  '  to  what  cause  is  it 
I  owe  this  pleasant  but  unlooked-for  visit  ?' 
The  mouse  said,  smiling :  '  Fear  not  for  your  hoard : 
I  come,  my  friend,  to  lodge,  and  not  to  board.' " 

There  are  several  vigorous  denunciations  of  the  vice 
of  envy.  This  is  anonymous  : — 

"  Envy  is  vile,  but  plays  a  useful  part, 
Torturing  in  envious  men  both  eyes  and  heart." 

This  is  in  that  exaggerated  style  which  the  epigrams 
sometimes  exhibit.  It  is  by  Lucillius  —  the  transla- 
tion from  "Wellesley : — 

"  Poor  Diophon  of  envy  died, 

His  brother  thief  to  see 
Nailed  near  him,  to  be  crucified, 
Upon  a  higher  tree." 


WITTY   AXI>    SATIRICAL.  193 

lint  the  host  epigram  on  this  subject  is  to  bo  found  in 
0110  which  seems  to  describe  a  picture  of  Mom  us  the 
fault-finder,  the  impersonation  of  Envy,  perhaps  also, 
some  will  say,  of  Criticism, — the  Power  who  could 
produce  nothing  excellent  himself,  and  who  never  saw 
unmixed  excellence  in  the  works  of  others.  The  pic- 
ture is  supposed  to  have  been  by  Apt-lies.  The  epi- 
gram is  anonymous;  the  translation  partly  from  Hay: — 

u  Who  here  has  formed,  with  faultless  hand  and  skill, 
Fault-finding  Momus,  source  of  endless  ill? 
On  the  bare  earth  his  aged  limits  are  thrown, 
As  if  in  life,  to  lie  and  sigh  and  groan. 
His  frame  is  wasted,  and  Ids  scanty  hairs 
One  trembling  Land  from  his  thin  temple  tears: 
With  his  old  stall'  the  other  strikes  the  ground, 
Which  all  insensate  to  the  blo\vs  is  found. 
In  double  row  his  gnashing  teeth  declare 
How  much   his  neighbour's   weal   o'envhelms  him   with 
despair." 

Swift  made  a  well-known  epitaph  upon  Vanbrugh 
as  an  architect : — 

u  Lie  heavy  on  him,  earth,  for  he 
Laid  many  a  heavy  load  on  thee." 

This  is  nearly  the  counterpart  of  the  following  Greek 
epigram  : — 

"  Hail,  Mother  Earth  !  lie  light  on  him 

Wl'ns"  tombstone  here  we  see  : 
/Esigfiies.  his  form  was  slim, 

And  light  his  weight  on  thee." 

A  similar  request  is  made  in  another  epigram  by  Am 
A.  o.  vol.  xx.  N 


194  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

mianus,  but  with  a  very  different  feeling.  The  transla- 
tion is  by  Merivale  : — 

"  Light  lie  the  earth,  Nearchus,  on  thy  clay, — 
That  so  the  dogs  may  easier  find  their  prey." 

This  anonymous  epigram  is  upon  a  matricide,  who 
does  not  deserve  burial: — 

"  Bury  him  not !  no  burial  is  for  him  : 
Let  hungry  dogs  devour  him  limb  by  limb. 
Our  general  Mother,  Earth,  on  her  kind  breast 
Will  ne'er  allow  a  matricide  to  rest." 

The  satirical  epigrammatists  indulge  often  in  na- 
tional invective,  and  indeed  the  Greeks  were  too  fond 
of  abusing  some  of  their  neighbours.  Here  are  speci- 
mens : — 

"  A  viper  bit  a  Cappadocian's  hide ; 
But  'twas  the  viper,  not  the  man,  that  died." 

The  natives  of  many  other  countries  besides  Cappa- 
docia  were  called  bad :  among  the  rest  the  Lerians ; 
thus  : — 

"  Lerians  are  bad  :  not  some  bad,  and  some  not; 
But  all ;  there's  not  a  Lerian  in  the  lot, 
Save  Procles,  that  you  could  a  good  man  call ; — 
And  Procles — is  a  Lerian  after  all." 

Our  readers  will  here  recognise  the  original  of  a 
well-known  epigram  by  Porson,  which  exists  both  in  a 
Greek  and  English  shape,  and  where  the  satirist,  after 
denouncing  the  Germans  as  all  ignorant  of  Greek 
metres,  concludes : — 


WITTY  AND   SATIRICAL.  195 

u  All,  save  only  Hermann  ; — 
And  Hermann's  a  German." 

It  was  unfortunate  for  poor  Hermann  that  his  naino 
and  his  nationality  rhymed  so  well  together. 

An  epigram  may  here  be  given  in  conclusion  on 
this  head,  as  tending,  perhaps,  to  illustrate  the  transi- 
tion by  which  the  satirical  Greek  epigram  came  to 
resemble  the  favourite  stylo  of  Martial  which  has  been 
so  much  adopted  in  modern  times. 

The  epigram  we  refer  to  is  by  Lucillius : — 

ON  A  DECLAMATORY  PLEADER. 

"  A  little  pig,  an  ox,  a  goat  (my  only  one),  I  lost, 
And  Menecles,  to  plead  my  cause,  I  fee'd  at  some  small 

cost. 
I  only  wanted  back  my  beasts,  which  seemed  my  simple 

due  ; 

Then,  Menecles,  what  had  I  with  Othryades  to  do  ? 
I  never  thought  in  this  affair  to  charge  with  any  theft 
The  men  who,  at  Thermopylae,  their  lives  and  bodies 

left. 

My  suit  is  with  Eutycludes  ;  and  if  I  get  decree, 
Leonidas  and  Xerxes  both  are  welcome  to  go  free. 
Plead  my  true  case  :  lest  I  cry  out  (I  can't  my  feelings 

smother), 
'  The  little  pig  one  story  tells,  and  Menecles  another.' " 

This  satire  upon  a  certain  class  of  lawyers  agrees  com- 
pletely with  an  epigram  of  Martial's ;  and  as  Lucillius 
and  he  lived  nearly  about  the  same  time,  it  would  be 
interesting  to  know  if  the  one  was  borrowed  from  the 
other,  and  which.  The  preponderance  of  evidence  rather 
is  that  Lucillius,  as  Lcssing  thinks,  was  a  century,  or  at 


196  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

least  half  a  century,  later  than  Martial,  and  is  pro- 
bably, therefore,  the  imitator  in  this  matter,  though 
his  imitation  is  not  slavish.  Martial's  epigram  has 
been  translated  into  French  by  La  Monnoye. 

This  chapter  may  be  concluded  with  a  mild  satire 
upon  the  condition  of  the  times,  with  reference  to  the 
two  ancient  worthies,  Heraclitus  and  Democritus,  the 
weeping  and  the  laughing  philosopher.  The  transla- 
tion is  mainly  from  Prior: — 

"  Sad  Heraclitus,  with  thy  tears  retiirn; 
Life  more  than  ever  gives  us  cause  to  mourn. 
Democritus,  dear  droll,  revisit  earth : 
Life  more  than  ever  gives  us  cause  for  mirth. 
Between  you  both  I  stand  in  thoughtful  pother, 
How  I  should  weep  with  one,  how  laugh  with  t'other." 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

NARRATIVE   AND    MISCELLANEOUS. 

THE  concluding  chapter  of  our  volume  will  consist  of 
Narrative  epigrams  ajid  some  others  of  a  miscellaneous 
kind,  not  easily  reducible  to  other  heads.  Ko  syste- 
matic order  can  well  be  observed  in  a  congeries  of  this 
kind ;  but  it  may  begin  with  those  that  are  shortest 
and  simplest. 

The  first  that  occurs  is  well  known  as  a  curiosity, 
and  as  an  exercise  lor  translators  in  the  power  of  con- 
densation and  equipoise.  The  original  consists  of  two 
lines,  and  any  expansion  of  it  must  be  looked  on  as 
an  evasion  of  the  difficulty. 

THE  CONTRAST. 

"  One  finding  gold,  left  there  a  rope  ;  but  he  who  in  the 

ground 
Had  left  the  gold,  not  finding  it,  put  on  the  rope  he  found." 

The  above  epigram  is  said  to  be  by  Plato,  but  not 
probably  the  philosopher.  The  next  is  attributed  to 
Antiphilus : — 

"Deficient  one  in  limbs,  and  one  in  eyes, 
Each  with  the  other's  help  his  want  supplies  • 


',98  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

The  blind  man  lifts  the  lame  man  on  his  back, 
And  by  the  other's  words  directs  his  track. 
Wholesome  necessity  this  lesson  taught, — 
By  mutual  pity,  mutual  aid  was  brought." 

This  shorter  one,  on  the  same  subject,  bears  the 
name  of  Plato  the  younger  : — 

"  The  blind  man  bears  the  lame,  and  onward  hies, 
Made  right  by  lending  leet  and  borrowing  eyes." 

The  next  that  comes  has  always  been  a  favourite,  and 
has  been  translated  by  several  modern  Latin  poets. 
The  original  is  anonymous  : — 

"  Young,  I  was  poor  ;  now  rich  in  my  old  age, 
My  lot  each  way  your  pity  may  engage. 
Wealth,  when  I  could  enjoy  it,  I  had  none  ; 
Now  that  I  have  it,  the  enjoyment's  gone." 

To  which  an  Englishman  has  ventured  on  this  reply  : — 

"  Come,  friend  ;  methinks  your  fate  in  either  season, 
For  such  complaints  affords  but  slender  reason. 
Youth,  when  with  vigour  joined,  requires  no  wealth ; 
It  finds  its  happiness  in  hope  and  health  : 
While  age,  tho'  torpid,  has  the  power  to  take 
Pleasure  in  money  for  its  own  mere  sake  ; 
Or  if  a  nobler  feeling  warms  the  breast, 
Is  happy  thereby  to  make  others  blest." 

The  next  is  given  as  an  example  of  what  the  Greeks 
called  storyk,  or  parental  affection  in  the  animal  world. 
The  original  is  by  Alpheus.  The  version  is  partly  from 
Hay  and  partly  from  Sir  A.  Croke,  in  Wellusley  : — 

"  Covered  with  wintry  snows,  around  her  young, 
With  sheltering  wings,  a  fond  hen-mother  clung, 


NARRATIVE   AND    MISCELLANEOUS.         199 

Till  by  heaven's  frosts  she  perished  ;  to  the  last 
Struggling  against  the  skies  and  bitter  blast. 
Progne,  Medea,  ye  were  mothers  too  ; 
In  Hades  blush — to  learn  what  birds  can  do." 

This  that  follows  is  a  story  by  Anyte  upon  three 
Milesian  ladies,  who,  when  their  city  was  invaded  by 
the  Gauls,  escaped  by  self-destruction  from  the  insults 
ottered  to  them;  the  translation  by  Men  vale: — 

"  Then  let  us  hence,  Miletus  dear  ;  sweet  native  land,  fare- 
well ; 
Th'  insulting  wrongs  of  lawless  Gauls  we  fear,  whilst  here 

we  dwell. 

Three  virgins  of  Milesian  race,  to  this  dire  fate  compell'd 
By  Celtic  Mars — yet  glad  we  die,  that  we  have  ne'er  beheld 
'Spousal  s  of  blood,  nor  sunk  to  bo  vile  hand  maids  to  our  foes, 
But  rather  owe  our  thanks  to  Death,  kind  healer  of  our 
woes." 

There  are  two  epigrams  on  a  child  being  saved  from 
destruction  by  its  mother's  presence  of  mind.  We 
give  one  of  these,  by  Parmenio  : — 

"  Her  child  once  leaning  o'er  the  extreme  roof 
Of  a  high  house  (children  are  free  from  fear), 
Its  mother  bared  her  breast,  yet  kept  aloof, 
And  made  her  child  to  its  loved  haunt,  draw  near  : 
Thus  did  the  milky  fount,  in  that  blest  hour 
Oi'  giving  life,  exert  a  double  power." 

There  is  another  epigram  on  this  subject,  but  it  is 
•innecessary  to  insert  it,  as  the  main  idea  is  the  ^jime, 
and  it  is  chiefly  distinguished  by  referring  to  the  fate 
of  Astyanax,  the  son  of  Hector,  who  was  thrown  by 
the  Greeks  from  a  high  place  and  killed,  liogers  the 


200  THE   O REEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

poet  lias  imitated  these  epigrams  in  some  well-known 
lines  : — 

"  While  on  the  cliff  with  calm  delight  she  kneels, 
And  the  blue  vales  a  thousand  joys  recall, 
See,  to  the  last,  last  verge  her  infant  steals! 
O  fly,  yet  stir  not,  speak  not,  lest  it  fall ! 
Far  better  taught,  she  lays  her  bosom  bare, 
And  the  fond  boy  springs  back  to  nestle  there." 

The  following  story  is  told  of  a  skilful  dive*  who 
did  good  service  to  the  Greeks  during  the  Persian 
war  by  conveying  information  to  them  without  being 
detected,  and  who  is  said  to  have  approached  under 
water  the  Persian  galleys,  when  anchored  near  the  Greek 
coast,  and  to  have  cut  the  cables,  so  as  to  expose  the 
vessels  to  a  violent  storm.  He  was  employed  in  these 
services  by  Themistocles,  to  which  fact  the  epigram 
makes  reference  : — 

u  When  Xerxes  poured  on  Greece  his  rabble  rout, 
Skyllus  a  warfare  'neath  the  wave  found  out ; 
Diving  where  ships  had  hoped  a  safe  retreat, 
He  cut  the  cables  of  the  anchored  fleet : 
Persia  and  all  her  crews,  thus  driven  to  land,   } 
Staggered,  and  prostrate  lay  upon  the  strand,    > 
The  first-fruits  of  Themistocles'  command."       ) 

IBYCUS  AND  THE  CRANES. 

"  Ibycus,  bent  the  desert  to  explore, 
There  robbers  slew  thee,  on  the  lonely  shore  ; 
Thy  cries  brought  down  a  passing  flock  of  cranes, 
Who  came  and  witnessed  thy  last  dying  pains  ; — 
And  not  in  vain.     A  Fury,  ire-inflamed, 
Avenged  thy  death,  which  those  good  birds  proclaimed, 


NARRATIVE   AND   MISCELLANEOUS.        201 

On  Corinth's  ground.     By  greed  of  lucre  driven, 
Yc  robbers,  fear  ye  not  the  wrath  of  Heaven  ? 
JSgysthus,  when  he  doomed  a  Bard  to  die, 
Did  not  escape  the  black-robed  Fury's  eye." 

The  story  just  given  is  well  known,  from  its  being  the 
subject  of  a  poem  of  Schiller's.  The  last  couplet  alludes 
to  an  act  of  /Egysthus  in  putting  to  death  a  bard,  a 
friend  of  Agamemnon's,  who  was  observing  and  en- 
deavouring to  restrain  Clytemnestra's  conduct. 

Here  is  a  rather  marvellous  story  of  a  crow ;  but  it 
appears  to  have  the  authority  of  Pliny  in  its  favour. 
It  is  by  Bianor  : — 

"  The  bird  of  Phoebus,  parched  with  thirst's  dire  pain, 
A  housewife's  pitcher  spied,  for  catching  rain  : 
He  perched,  loud  croaking,  on  the  brim,  but  no, — 
Too  short  his  beak,  the  water  much  too  low  ! 
Thy  power  then,  Phcebus,  in  the  bird  inspired 
An  artifice  to  gain  what  he  desired  : 
With  gathered  pebbles,  quickly  to  the  brink 
He  raised  the  water's  level,  and  could  drink." 

THE  DRAUGHT-OX. 
By  Addceus. 

"  The  old  draught-ox,  worn  in  the  furrowed  field, 
Alcon  to  ruthless  slaughter  would  not  yield, 
His  toils  revering  :  in  deep  pasture  now 
He  lows,  and  feels  his  freedom  from  the  plough." 

It  was  a  religious  scruple  with  the  ancient  Greeks 
not  to  sacrifice  a  plough-ox. 

The  story  that  follows — for  it  is  a  story,  though  it 
concludes  with  a  precept — is  an  illustration  of  that 
power  of  Nemesis  which  has  been  referred  to  in 


202  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

another  part  of  this  volume,  and  it  is  directed  against 
the  presumptuoustiess  of  doing  what  is  sometimes  called 
fore-speaking  Providence : — 

"  My  gallant  ship  now  nears  my  nati  ve  shore  ; 
To-morrow !  and  her  stormy  course  is  o'er. 
To-morrow  ! — when  my  lips  these  words  had  said, 
A  sea  like  Hades,  raving  o'er  my  head, 
Engulphed  me  ;  and  destruction  round  me  clung, 
For  this  vain  vaunting  of  a  froward  tongue. 
Say  not  to-morrow;  the  tongue's  slightest  ylip 
Nemesis  watches,  ere  it  pass  the  lip." 

The  epigram  is  by  Antiphilus,  the  translation  by  Hay, 

slightly  altered. 

A  wayside   nut-tree  here   complains  of  the  school- 
boys.    It  is  by  Antipater,  or,  as  some  say,  Piato  : — • 

"  A  roadside  nut-tree  planted,  here  I  stand, 
A  mark  for  every  passing  schoolboy's  hand  ; 
My  houghs  and  nourishing  twigs  all  broke  or  bent — 
Wounded  by  many  a  missile  at  me  sent. 
What  boots  it  now  that  trees  should  fruitful  be  1 — 
My  very  fruit  brings  this  disgrace  on .me  I" 

The  next  is  rather  an  old-fashioned,  story,  told  of 
Pittacus,  one  of  the  Seven  sages  : — 

"An  Atarncan  stranger  once  to  Pittacus  applied, 

That  ancient  sage,  Hyrradius'  son,  and  Mitylene's  pride  : 

'  Grave  sir,  betwixt  two  marriages  I  now  have  power  to 

choose, 
And  hope  you  will  advise  me  which  to  take  and  which 

refuse. 

One  of  the  maidens,  every  way,  is  very  near  myself ; 
The  other's  far  above  me,  both  in  pedigree  and  pel£ 


NARRATIVE   AND  MISCELLANEOUS.         203 

Now  which  is  best  ?'     The  old  man  raised  the  staff  which 

old  men  bear, 
And  with  it  pointed  to  some  boys  that  then  were  playing 

there, 
Whipping  their  tops  along  the  street :    '  Their  steps,'  he 

said,  '  pursue, 

Arid  look,  and  listen  carefully  ;  they'll  tell  you  what  to  do.' 
Following  theni,  the  stranger  went  to  see  what  might  befall, 
And  'Whip  the  top  that's  nearest  you!'  was  still  their 

constant  call. 
He,  by  this  boyish  lesson  taught,  resigned  the  high-bom 

dame, 
And  wed  the  maiden  '  nearest  him.'     Go  thou  and  do  the 

same  !" 

The  story  that  follows  is  of  a  he-goat,  but  it  is 
connected  with  circumstances  of  a  curious  and  interest- 
ing kind.  It  is  made  the  vehicle  of  recording  the 
religious  custom  by  which  the  Goat,  from  its  habit  of 
devouring  the  brandies  of  the  vine,  was  held  obnoxi- 
ous to  Bacchus,  and  sacrificed  to  him  accordingly.  It 
may  be  mentioned  that  the  word  Tragedy  means 
literally  a  goat-song,  such  as  was  sung  or  repeated  at 
these  sacrifices  to  Bacchus.  The  epigram  is  by  Leoni- 
das  of  Tarentum,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  imitated  or 
abridged  by  Evenus,  of  whose  composition  a  single 
couplet  only  remains.  Leonidas's  epigram  may  be  thus 
translated : — 

"  The  she-goat's  bounding  and  well-bearded  spouse, 
On  the  vine's  tender  shoots  intent  to  browse, 
A  Voice  from  earth  addressed — '  Vile  wretch,  devour 
Our  fruitful  twi^s,  for  short-lived  is  your  power  ! 
This  firm  root  soon  will  nectar  yield  again, 
To  pour  on  you,  he-goat,  when  at  the,  altar  slain.' " 


204  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

The  couplet  preserved  of  Evenus's  composition,  and 
which  Ovid  copied,  may  be  turned  into  this  quatrain: — 

"  Though  you  should  gnaw  me  to  the  root, 

Yet,  he-goat,  to  the  altar  led, 
You'll  find  I've  borne  enough  of  fruit 
To  pour  on  your  devoted  head." 

This  composition  attained  in  the  reign  of  Domitian 
a  celebrity  and  importance  worth  recording.  That 
emperor,  whose  character  exhibited  a  strange  mixture 
of  good  and  evil,  explicable  only  on  the  supposition  of 
his  insanity,  issued  an  edict  to  prohibit  the  cultivation 
of  vineyards — at  least,  without  an  imperial  licence.  He 
seems  to  have  thought  that  vine-culture  interfered  with 
the  cultivation  of  corn,  and  may  have  wished  to 
obviate  mischief  produced  among  some  of  his  soldiers 
by  intemperance.  But  the  wine-growers  naturally 
were  indignant ;  and  being  no  doubt  as  much  alive  to 
their  own  interests  as  the  licensed  victuallers  of  the 
present  day,  they  set  themselves  to  procure  the  recall  of 
the  edict,  which  they  effected  partly  by  the  dissemina- 
tion of  what  Mr  Merivale  calls  an  ominous  parody  on 
this  epigram,  in  which  the  name  of  Caesar  was  substi- 
tuted for  that  of  he-goat.  Domitian  probably  was 
superstitious  enough  to  think  that  by  destroying  the 
vines  he  was  becoming,  like  the  he-goat,  obnoxious  to 
Bacchus,  and  might  fall  a  sacrifice  to  the  god's  dis- 
pleasure or  to  the  resentment  of  his  votaries,  of  which 
there  were  not  wanting  examples  in  mythological 
history. 

Here  are  two  deathbed  scenes,  expressed,  we  think, 
with  a  touching  degree  of  pathos  : — 


NARRATIVE   AND   MISCELLANEOUS.        205 

"  These  her  last  words  the  weeping  Gorgo  said, 
As  round  her  mother's  neck  her  hands  she  laid: 
'  Stay  witli  my  lather,  and  a  daughter  bear, 
Who  may,  with  happier  fate,  of  thy  grey  age  have  care.' " 


u  Holding  her  father  in  a  last  embrace, 
Erato  spoke,  while  tears  bedewed  her  face  : 
'  Father,  I  am  no  more  ;  death  clouds  my  eye 
Even  now,  with  its  black  shadow,  while  I  die.'" 

The  following,  by  Palladas,  gives  a  striking  picture 
of  a  heathen's  views  of  Divine  Providence, — for  the 
author  is  thought  not  to  have  been  a  Christian,  or  if 
lie  was,  he  may  have  written  the  verses  in  a  heathen 
character.  Sarapis,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  written, 
.Serapis,  was,  as  wo  are  told,  an  Egyptian  divinity, 
whose  worship  was  introduced  into  Greece  in  the  time 
of  the  Ptolemys.  He  was  h«-ld  in  great  veneration  at 
Alexandria,  to  which  place  Palladas  belonged,  and  it 
has  been  said  that  this  is  the  name  given  to  Apis  after 
his  death  and  deification.  Scrapis  corresponds  to  the 
Greek  Jupiter  and  Pluto  united,  and  his  image  is  often 
to  be  seen  on  works  of  art,  with  the  peculiar  attribute 
of  a  modius  or  corn-measure  on  his  head.  The  version 
is  Hay's,  slightly  altered  : — 

"  Serapis  to  a  murderer,  they  say, 
( 'ame  in  a  vision,  while  asleep  he  lay, 
Near  a  frail  wall, — and  thus  his  dictate  ran  : 
'Up,  go,  sleep  elsewhere,  tliou  most  wn-t<-hed  man  !' 
He,  startled,  changed  his  place,  when,  hark  !  that  sound  : 
With  sudden  crash  the  wall  comes  to  the  ground. 
With  joy  the  wivtch  an  oH'cring  soon  provides, 
Thinking  the  god  is  pleased  with  homicides. 


206  THE    GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

But  now  again  that  voice  is  heard  by  night : 
'  Think'st  thou  that  I  in  men  like  thee  delight  ? 
I  saved  thee  once — it  was  a  painless  fate  ^ 

Averted — but  know  this,  my  righteous  hate 
Keserved  thee  for  the  cross,  whose  pangs  thy-  crimes  ( 
await.'"  ) 

Here  are  two  mutually  contrasted  stories,  showing 
the  return  made  by  the  gods  for  the  opposite  qualities 
of  humane  compassion  and  contemptuous  insensibility 
in  reference  to  the  dead.  It  should  be  explained  that 
it  was  thought  by  the  ancients  a  stringent  duty  to 
bury  the  dead,  or  any  part  of  a  dead  body  left  without 
sepulture.  We  may  remember,  also,  that  to  "  bury  the 
dead"  is  one  of  the  seven  Corporal  mercies  of  the 
Christian  Church  : — 

u  A  dead  man's  skull,  cast  on  the  public  road, 
A  traveller  saw,  nor  sign  of  pity  showed  ; 
Lifting  a  stone,  he  threw  it  at  the  head, 
Nor  feared  for  retribution  from  the  dead. 
But,  back  rebounding  from  the  bone,  its  flight 
Quenched  the  unfeeling  jester's  power  of  sight. 
Hereafter,  too,  he'll  feel  it,  and  lament 
The  foolish  skill  that  such  a  missile  sent." 

The  author  of  the  companion  story  is  Carphyllides, 
and  the  version  we  give  is  Mr  Hay's  : — 

"  While  from  the  strand  his  line  a  fisher  threw, 
Shoreward  a  shipwrecked  human  head  he  drew. 
His  moistened  eyes  soft  drops  of  pity  shed, 
While  gazing  on  the  bald  and  trim kl ess  head. 
No  spade  he  had  ;  but  while  his  active  hands 
Scraped  a  small  grave  among  the  yielding  sands, 
A  store  of  gold,  there  hid,  he  found.     Yes  !  yes  ! 
Heaven  will  the  just  man's  pious  actions  bless." 


NARRATIVE  AND   MISCELLANEOUS.        207 

The  next  story  to  be  given  is  a  very  celebrated  one. 
It  is  by  Calliinacbus,  expressed  with  his  usual  brevity 
and  elegance.  It  is  mentioned  by  Cicero,  and  trans- 
lated by  him  from  a  text  somewhat  different,  appar- 
ently, from  what  we  possess.  Two  translations  shall  bo 
given  to  help  the  illustration  of  it.  The  first  is  rather 
more  literal  than  the  second,  which  is  by  Mr  Burgon, 
and  given  in  Dr  Wellesley's  book  : — 

"  Cleombrotus,  the  Ambraciote,  having  said — 

'  Thou  sun,  farewell  ! '  leapt  down  among  the  dead 
From  the  high  wall  :  no  sorrow  had  he  known, 
Nor  was  there  cause  for  death,  save  this  alone — 
Plato  upon  the  Soul,  the  ardent  youth  had  read." 


"<  Farewell,  thou  sun  !'  Cleombrotus,  the  hold  Ambraciote, 

cried, 
And  hurled  himself,  impetuous,  from  the  lofty  rampart's 

side  ; 
Yet  nought  there  was  on  all  the  earth  to  urge  him  to  the 

deed, 
Save  Plato's  matchless  '  Phscdon,'  which  'twas  known  he 

loved  to  read." 

The  motive  of  this  act  has  been  the  subject  of 
speculation — whether  it  was  curiosity,  or  perplexity,  or 
a  sense  of  the  comparative  vanity  of  earthly  things. 
The  quality  of  the  act,  too,  was  discussed  among  the 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  and  different  opinions  ex- 
pressed. In  a  ludicrous  epigram  by  Agathias  upon  a 
Sophist  who  was  questioned  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
soul,  and  who  answered  in  very  vague  terms,  the 
conclusion  of  his  answer  is  : — 


208  THE    GREEK   ANTHOLOGY. 

"  If  more  you  wish  to  learn,  to  Hades  go, 
And  there  as  much  as  Plato  soon  you'll  know. 
Or  if  you  choose,  ascend  the  rampart's  height, 
Mimic  Cleombrotus,  and  plunge  to-night : 
The  soul,  thus  without  body  left  alone,  \ 

May  have  the  truth  it  seeks  for  clearly  shown, —    > 
If  there's  indeed  a  soul,  to  know,  or  to  be  known."  ) 

WHAT  WORDS  HECTOR  WOULD  HAVE  SAID  IF  STRUCK 
BY  THE  GREEKS  AFTER  HE  WAS  DEAD. 

Anonymous. 

"Wound  now  my  lifeless  form  ;  ev'n  hares  exult 
O'er  the  fall'n  lion,  and  his  corse  insult." 

Instead  of  a  story  we  may  give  here  a  supposed  ad- 
dress of  Troy  to  Minerva  ou  the  goddess  deserting  her, 
by  Agathias  : — 

"Guardian  of  Troy  relent :  I  thee  adore 
Still  in  my  misery  as  I  did  before. 
But  thou  hast  given  me  to  the  foe  a  prey  : 
All  for  an  apple,  must  my  bliss  give  way  ! 
The  Shepherd's  death  might  have  sufficed  :  if  He 
Unjustly  judged,  yet  Troy  from  blame  was  free." 

As  a  counterpart  of  this  epigram,  another  shall  be 
given,  ascribed  to  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  upon  the 
resuscitation  of  Troy  under  the  Eoman  power.  Tho 
translation  is  by  Goldwiu  Smith  : — 

"  Hector,  brave  heart,  if  still  thy  spirit  hears, 
0  list,  and  stay  awhile  thy  patriot  tears  ! 
Troy  stands  a  noble  city  ;  and  in  war 
Her  sons,  though  weak  to  thee,  still  valiant  are. 
The  Myrmidons  are  gone.     To  Achilles  say, 
Eneas'  offspring  all  Thessalia  sway." 

As  a  further  form  of  retribution  against  Greece  may 


NARRATIVE  AND  MISCELLANEOUS.         209 

be  given  the  lament  for  the  destruction  of  Corinth  by 
the  Eomans,  the  supposed  descendants  of  Troy.  The 
epigram  is  by  Antipater,  the  translation  by  Welle.s- 
ley : — 

"  Where  are  thy  splendours,  Dorian  Corinth,  where 
Thy  crested  turrets,  thy  ancestral  goods, 

The  temples  of  the  blest,  the  dwellings  fair, 
The  high-born  dames,  the  myriad  multitudes  ? 

There's  not  a  trace  of  thee,  sad  doomed  one,  left, 

By  rav'ning  war  at  once  of  all  bereft. 

We,  the  sad  Nereids,  offspring  of  the  surge, 

Alone  are  spared  to  chant  thy  halcyon  dirge." 

We  give  another  on  the  same  subject  by  Polystratus, 
translated  by  Charles  Merivale,  as  more  clearly  bring- 
ing out  the  supposed  retribution  to  which  we  have 
referred.  The  destruction  of  Corinth  by  Mummius 
was  a  signally  important  event  both  to  Greece  and 
Rome.  It  reduced  that  profligate  city  to  desolation 
for  a  century  and  a  half,  though  in  St  Paul's  time  her 
prosperity  as  well  as  her  profligacy  had  revived.  But  in 
reference  to  Eome,  the  taking  of  Corinth  led  to  the 
introduction  of  that  taste  for  Art  of  which  the  Eomans 
had  previously  been  destitute.  Mummius  was  so  igno- 
rant of  the  very  conception  of  excellence  in  Art  that 
the  main  precaution  he  took  in  having  pictures  and 
statues  conveyed  to  Eome  was  to  stipulate  that  in  the 
case  of  their  injury  or  destruction,  the  parties  in- 
trusted with  them  should  replace  them  with  new  ones. 

"  Achncan  Acrocorinth,  the  bright  star 
Of  Hellas,  with  its  narrow  Lsthinian  bound, 
Lucius  o'ercame,  in  one  enormous  mound 
Piling  the  dead,  conspicuous  from  afar. 
A.  c.  vol.  xx.  o 


210  THE   GREEK  ANTHOLOGY. 

Thus,  to  the  Greeks  denying  funeral  fires, 
Have  great  vEneas'  later  progeny 
Performed  high  Jove's  retributive  decree, 

And  well  avenged  the  city  of  their  sires  !" 

The  next  that  we  give  is  a  kind  of  story,  embodied 
in  the  song  of  the  Cretan  warrior  bearing  the  name 
of  Hybrias.  There  are  many  good  translations  of  this 
piece,  but  we  prefer  to  give  the  version  by  Leyden, 
which  we  think  deserves  to  be  rescued  from  tho  obli- 
vion with  which  it  has  been  threatened  : — 

"  My  spear,  my  sword,  my  shaggy  shield  ! 

With  these  I  till,  with  these  I  sow  ; 
With  these  I  reap  my  harvest  field, — 

No  other  wealth  the  gods  bestow  : 
With  these  I  plant  the  fertile  vine  ; 
With  these  I  press  the  luscious  wine. . 

My  spear,  my  sword,  my  shaggy  shield  ! 

They  make  me  lord  of  all  below, — 
For  those  who  dread  my  spear  to  wield, 

Before  my  shaggy  shield  must  bow. 
Their  fields,  their  vineyards,  they  resign, 
And  all  that  cowards  have  is  mine." 

The  chapter  and  the  volume  may  be  concluded  with 
the  anonymous  motto  which  more  than  one  adventurer 
is  said  to  have  adopted  at  the  conclusion  of  their 
story : — 

"  Fortune  and  Hope,  farewell  !  I've  gained  the  port ; 
You've  fooled  me  long — make  others  now  your  sport." 


APPENDIX. 


SOME  PRINCIPAL  DATES  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  ANTHO- 
LOGIES, AND  THE  ERAS  OF  SOME  OF  THE  POETS 
WHOSE  EPIGRAMS  ARE  INSERTED  IN  THEM. 

Melcager's  Garland,  compiled  in  the  end  of  the  second 
century  B.C. 

Philippus's  Collection,  made  about  the  end  of  the  second 
century  A.D. 

In  each  of  these  collections,  lists  of  the  poets  are  given 
wlio.se  epigrams  are  contained  in  them  ;  and  by  this  nu-ans 
an  approximation  can  be  made  to  the  dates  at  which  they 
llourished. 

Agathias's  Collection,  made  in  the  sixth  century  A.D. 

Eras  of  some  of  the  more  remarkable  foets  : — 

B.C. 

Archiloclms,       ...         687 
Sajiplio,  about   .         .        .         611 

o-        •  i  f  5o'i  /'. 

Simomdes,          .        .        .      }  4(._  ^ 

Leon  Idas  of  Tarentum,  .  Middle  of  3d  century  B.C. 

('allimarluis,  abcut    .  •  256 

Antipater  of  Sidou,    .  .  127 

Meleager,    ....  95 

Nossis,        1  3d  century  B.C.,  but  consid- 

Anyte    (?)    >      .        .  .  erable  uncertainty  attending 

Eriijua  (I)  )  two  of  these  poetesses. 


THE   END. 


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